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NEWLY TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH 
WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES 

BY 

FATHER PASCHAL ROBINSON 

of the Order of Friars Minor 



Philadelphia 
MCMVI 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

DEC 21 1905 

Copy r i£ hi Entry 
CLASS OL. KSS. No, 

/ 3 I *T?d 

COPY B. 

imprimi permtttttur 



,c\0 



Paterson die 26 Novembris, 1905 

FR. EDUARDUS BLECKE, O.F.M. 
Provinciae SS. Nominis Jesu Minister Provincialis 



imprimatur 

*PATRITIUS JOANNES 
Archiep. Philadelphien. 

Die 8 Decembris, 1905 



Copyright, 1905 

Wqt JBolpijtn preste 



TO THE 
MOST REVEREND 

Jfattjer ©entó ^cftuler 

THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTH SUCCESSOR OF 
SAINT FRANCIS AS MINISTER GENERAL 
OF THE FRIARS MINOR 



I 

I 



CONTENTS. 



Introduction ix 

CHARACTERISTICS OF ST. FRANCIS' WRITINGS . . X 

EARLY MS. COLLECTIONS XVÌÌÌ 

EDITIONS AND TRANSLATIONS XXÌÌ 

PART I. 

Words of Admonition 3 

Salutation of the Virtues 20 

Instruction on the Lord's Body 22 

Rules of the Friars Minor 25 

first rule of the friars minor 31 

second rule of the friars minor 64 

Fragments from the Rule of the Clares .... 75 

The Testament 79 

Regulation for Hermitages 87 

PART II. 

Six Letters of St. Francis 93 

1. TO ALL THE FAITHFUL 96 

2. TO ALL THE FRIARS I09 

3. TO A CERTAIN MINISTER II9 

4. TO THE RULERS OF THE PEOPLE 125 

5. TO ALL THE CUSTODES 127 

6. TO BROTHER LEO I30 

PART III. 

Praises and Paraphrase of the Lord's Prayer 4 137 

Salutation of the Blessed Virgin 143 

Prayer to Obtain Divine Love 145 



viii CONTENTS. 

The Praises of God 146 

The Blessing of Brother Leo 149 

The Canticle of the Sun 150 

The Office of the Passion 154 

Appendix: 

some lost, doubtful and spurious writings . 179 

Bibliography 189 

Index , 197 



INTRODUCTION. 



I. 

^ II """""""^ HE writings of St. Francis may, 
as is obvious, be considered 
from more than one point of 
view. Premising this, we are 
afforded a clue to the difficulty 
> ^pJlk^-u* which has led students of 
v \^ ^^TTS Franciscan sources to divide 
X^^^^^ly themselves into two camps 
as to the objective value of 
these writings. Indeed, one writer 1 goes so far as 
to compare the attitude of modern scholars to- 
ward them to that of the " Spiritual " and Con- 
ventual Friars respectively in the first century 
of Franciscan history. For while one party, led 
by M. Paul Sabatier, 2 attaches what some regard 
as almost undue weight to the writings of St. 
Francis as a source of our knowledge of him, 
the other party, following Mgr. Faloci Pulignani, 3 
displays, we are told, a tendency to belittle their 
importance. The truth is, as Professor Miiller 
long ago pointed out, 4 that these writings afford 

i Prof. A. G. Little. See English Historical Review ', Oct., 
1902, p. 652. 

2 M. Sabatier's views on this point are summarized in his 
Vie de S. Francois, Paris, 1904. See Etudes des Sources, 
p. xxxvi. 

3 Mgr. Faloci's opinion may be found in his Miscellanea 
Francescana, Foligno, t. VII, p. 115 seq. 

4 Die Anfànge des Minoritenordens , Freiburg, 1885, p. 3. 



X 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



us little if any information as to the life of their 
author, a fact which may perhaps account for 
their comparative neglect by so many of the 
Saint's biographers, but it is not less true that 
they bear the stamp of his personality and 
reflect his spirit even more faithfully than the 
Legends written down on the very morrow of 
his death by those who had known him the best 
of all. 1 For this reason they are well worth all 
the serious study that scholars outside the Fran- 
ciscan Order are now beginning to give to them. 

To say that the writings of St. Francis reflect 
his personality and his spirit is but another way 
of saying that they are at once formidably mys- 
tic and exquisitely human ; that they combine 
great elevation of thought with much pictur- 
esqueness of expression. This twofold element, 
which found its development later on in the 
prose of mystics like St. Bonaventure and in the 
verse of poets like Jacopone da Todi, and which 
has ever been a marked characteristic of Fran- 
ciscan ascetic literature, leads back to the writ, 
ings of the Founder as to the humble upper 
waters of a mighty stream. / St. Francis had the 
soul of an ascetic and the heart of a poet. His 
unbounded faith had an almost lyric sweet- 
ness about it ; his deep sense of the spiritual is 
often clothed with the character of romance. 
This intimate union of the supernatural and the 
natural is nowhere more strikingly manifested 
than in the writings of St. Francis, which, after 

1 See Opuscula. Ed. Quaracchi, p. vi. 



INTR OD UCTION. xi 

the vicissitudes of well nigh seven hundred win- 
ters, are still fragrant with the fragrance of the 
Seraphic springtide. 

Important as the doctrinal aspect of St. 
Francis' writings must of necessity be to all 
who would understand his life — since " the 
springs of action are to be found in belief, and 
conduct ultimately rests upon conviction it 
is foreign to the object of the present volume. 
I am here concerned with the literary and his- 
torical aspect of these writings. Suffice it to 
say that St. Francis' doctrine, 1 which received, 
so to speak, the Divine Imprimatur upon the 
heights of La Verna two years before his death, 2 
is nothing more or less than a paraphrase* 
of the Sermon on the Mount. Nowhere can 
there be found a simpler literalness in the 
following of the " poverty, humility, and holy 
Gospel of the Lord Jesus " than in the writ- 
ings of St. Francis, and any attempt to read 
into them the peculiar doctrines of the Abbot 
Joachim of Flora, the Humiliati, the Poor Men 

1 See on this subject the long study of Cardinal Gabriel de 
Treio, given by Wadding in the Opuscula. The full title is : 
" Gabriel, divina miseratione S. R. E. Tituli S. Pancratii pres- 
byter cardinalis de Treio, in epistola missa ad R. admodum 
P. Lucam Wadingum." It is given in substance by Fr. 
Apollinaris, O. F.M., in his Doctrine Spirituelle de S. Fran- 
cois (Paris, 1878). See also the Bibliotheca Veterum Patrum 
(Cologne, 1618), which ranks St. Francis among the Fathers. 

2 . . nel crudo sasso, intra Tevere ed Arno, 
Da Cristo prese l'ultimo sigillo, 

Che le sue membra due anni portarno." 

Paradiso, XI — 114. 



xii WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 

of Lyons, or any of their nameless followers, is 
as unjust as it is unjustifiable. Needless to add 
that St. Francis' writings contain no new mes- 
sage. Indeed, the frequency with which certain 
very old and familiar aspects of the eternal 
truths are insisted upon by St. Francis in sea- 
son and out of season, is not unlikely to weary 
the average reader who does not pause to look 
between the lines. This tendency to repeat 
himself, which is habitual with St. Francis, does 
not necessarily bespeak any dearth of ideas. 
On the contrary. His simple, childlike nature 
fastened upon three or four leading thoughts 
" taken from the words of the Lord," which 
seemed to him all-sufficing, and these he works 
into his writings over and over, tempering them 
to the needs of the different classes he addresses 
as he understood them. If then we recall the 
circumstances under which St. Francis wrote 
and the condition of those for whom his writ- 
ings were intended in the first instance, far from 
being bored, we may gain something from each 
new repetition. 

Because St. Francis loved Jesus and His 
Eucharistic Passion, ardently, enthusiastically, 
almost desperately — to borrow Bossuet's adjec- 
tives — his sympathy extended to every creature 
that suffered or rejoiced. His writings are elo- 
quent witnesses to this far-reaching, all-em- 
bracing solicitude. They may be said to run 
over the whole gamut. Witness the soft note 
touched in the letter to Brother Leo and the 



INTRO D UCTION. 



Xlll 



deep masculine tone in which the Testament is 
pitched. On the whole, however, his writings 
fall naturally under three heads : 1 those, like the 
Rules, which represent St. Francis as legislator; 
those, like the Letter to a Minister, which 
show us St. Francis as a spiritual father ; and 
those, like the Praises and Salutations, in which 
we see St. Francis as his earliest biographer saw 
him — "not so much a man praying as prayer 
itself." 2 

It was Matthew Arnold, I believe, who first 
held St. Francis up to English readers as a lit- 
erary type 3 — a type withal as distinct and formal 
as the author of the Divine Comedy. But how- 
ever true a poet — and without St. Francis no 
Dante — it is certain that the Poverello was in no 
sense a man of letters. He was too little ac- 
quainted with the laws of composition to advance 
very far in that direction. His early years had 
been a bad preparation for study, and he ever 
remained a comparative stranger to the ecclesi- 
astical and classical learning of his time, though 
probably his culture was larger than we might 
be led to conclude from his repeated professions 
of ignorance and the disparaging remarks of 
some of his early biographers. Through his 
mother he seems to have got some acquaintance 

1 See Boehmer, Analekten, p. xlv. 

2 " Non tarn orans quam oratio factus." 2 Cel. 3, 51. 

3 See his chapter on " Pagan and Mediaeval Religious Senti- 
ment " in the Essays on Criticism. Third edition, Macmillan, 
1875, pp. 243-248. 



xiv WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



with French ; 1 he received elementary instruc- 
tion in reading and writing from the priests at 
San Giorgio, who also taught him enough Latin 
to enable him to write it in later years after a 
fashion, 2 and to understand the ritual of the 
Church and its hymns, which he was wont to 
sing by the wayside. But in considering St. 
Francis' literary formation, we must reckon 
largely with the education he picked up in 
the school of the Troubadours, who at the 
close of the twelfth century were making for 
refinement in Italy. 3 The imagery of the chan- 
sons de gestes seems to have exercised an abiding 
influence upon St. Francis' life and writings, as 
is evident from his own tale of the Lady Pov- 
erty, which later inspired the pen of Dante and 
the brush of Giotto. Witness, too, his frequent 
allusions to the Knights of the Round Table ; 
his desire that his Friars should become "the 
Lord's Jongleurs," and his habit of courtesy 
extended even to Sister Death. 4 On the other 
hand St. Francis was nothing if not original. 
His writings abound not only in allegory and 
personification, but also in quaint concepts and 

1 See Leg. Ill Soc, 10. 

2 Eccleston speaks of his " false Latin." See below, p. 132. 

3 Some of the greatest troubadours of Provence were then 
sojourning in Italy. On their journeys and influence there 
see Fauriel, Histoire de la poesie Provengale, t. II, and three 
articles by the same author in the <4 Bibliothèque de l' Ecole des 
Chartes," t. Ill and IV. Fragments of their poems are given 
by Monaci : Testi antichi provenzali (Rome, 1889). 

4 See Gòrres : Der hi. Francisais von Assisi, t i>i Trouba- 
dour (Ratisbon, 1879). 



INTROD UCTION. 



xv 



naì've deductions. His final argument is often 
a text of Holy Scripture, which he uses with a 
familiarity and freedom altogether remarkable. 
Indeed there are parts of his writings in which 
the interweaving of Scriptural phrases is so in- 
tricate as almost to defy any attempt to indicate 
them by references, the more so since the Bibli- 
cal language adopted by St. Francis is not always 
taken from the Bible, but often from the Liturgy, 
Missal, and Breviary. 1 For the rest, as Celano 
puts it, "he left empty ornaments and round- 
about methods of speech and everything be- 
longing to pomp and to display to those who 
are ready to perish ; for his part he cared not 
for the bark, but for the pith ; not for the shell, 
but for the nut ; not for the multiple, but for the 
one only sovereign good." 2 

If we may judge from the two solitary auto- 
graphic fragments of his that have come down to 
us, 3 St. Francis was not by any means a skilful 
penman. Be this as it may, St. Bonaventure 
clearly implies that he had a secretary, 4 to whom 

1 1 have rendered all Scripture phrases by the correspond- 
ing Douay Version ; not, indeed, that I wish to raise any vexa- 
tious question as to the relative merits of the Douay and the 
English Authorized Version from a literary point of view, but 
because, as every student of Franciscan literature must be 
aware, the Biblical passages in the early documents are 
quoted from the Vulgate, and the English Authorized Version 
is not and does not profess to be a translation of the Vulgate. 
See Franciscan Annals, January, 1905, p. 8. 

2 1 Cel. 1. 3 See below, p. 130. 

4 M. Sabatier ( Vie de S. Francois, p. 5) suggests that 
Brother Leo may have acted in this capacity, and invokes the 
authority of Bernard of Besse to prove it. 



xvi WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 

he dictated notes, and affirms with Celano that 
the Saint signed such documents as called for 
his signature with the " sign t/iau," or capital 
T. 1 Whether or not St. Francis' practice of sign- 
ing his name thus has any connection with 
Brother Pacifico's vision of the large T 9 2 is a 
matter of conjecture and of small import. What 
is certain is that St. Francis wrote little. The 
most characteristic of his extant writings are 
very short, extremely simple in style, and with- 
out any trace of pedantry. If some of the longer 
pieces seem to show the touch of a more skilful 
hand than that of St. Francis, idiota et simplex, 
we need not on this account feel any misgivings 
as to their authenticity. Whatever assistance 
he may have received in pruning and embellish- 
ing certain of his later compositions from Caesar 
of Spires or another, no one who examines these 
writings carefully can doubt but that they are 
the work of the great Saint himself. 

From a literary standpoint perhaps the most 
carefully composed bit of St. Francis' writing 
that has come down to us is the realistic picture 
of the miser's death in the letter " To all the 
Faithful." More interesting, however, to the stu- 
dent is the " Canticle of the Sun," not only as 
an example of the simple, spontaneous Umbrian 
dialect rhyme which St. Francis taught his poet 
followers to substitute for the artificial versifica- 

1 For the testimony of St. Bonaventure and Celano see be- 
low, p. 147. 

2 See Tract, de Miraculis., Anal. Boi., t. xviii, p. 115. 



INTRO D UCTION. 



xvii 



tion of courtly Latin and Provencal poets, but 
also because of the light it throws on St. Francis' 
literary method, — if method it may be called. 
His piecemeal fashion of composing as the 
spirit moved him, is also manifest in a very dif- 
ferent work, the First Rule, as is evident from 
the modification and additions this strange piece 
of legislation suffered during the fourteen years 
it was in force. 1 St. Francis 1 practice of return- 
ing to his old writings, retouching and remould- 
ing them, working them over and inserting parts 
of them in his new ones, goes far toward ex- 
plaining difficulties which would otherwise arise 
from the resemblance between his different 
compositions. 

For the rest, even though St. Francis' literary 
culture was incomplete, his constant contempla- 
tion of the " things that are above " and the per- 
fect purity of his life whetted alike his under- 
standing of supernatural truth and of the human 
heart, and so it comes to pass that his simple 
words, written down in the far-off thirteenth cen- 
tury and with a fashion of speech different from 
ours, yet work wonders to this day, while the 
tomes of many a learned doctor " leave all things 
as they were before." 

It remains to say a few words concerning the 
history of St. Francis' writings before coming 
to the writings themselves. 



1 See below, p. 27. 



xviii WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



II. 



he history of the writings of St. Francis, 



1 from the time of their composition in the 
far-off thirteenth century down to our own day, 
opens up a most interesting field for speculation. 
Who, it may be asked, first gathered these writ- 
ings together ? In answer to this question noth- 
ing definite can be said, for the early Legends 
and Chronicles of the Order are silent on the 
subject, and we must rest content to begin our 
inquiry with the oldest MS. collections containing 
the writings of St. Francis. Many such collec- 
tions exist in mediaeval codices, but any attempt 
to classify these MSS. is, in the present state of 
our documentation, beset by peculiar difficulties. 
Not the least of these difficulties arises from the 
fact that even as in the Legends or Lives of St. 
Francis we can distinguish a double current ; 1 so, 
too, in the early MS. collections two distinct fami- 
lies or categories are found representing or rather 
illustrating the twofold tradition and observance 
which date from the very beginnings of Fran- 
ciscan history. 2 

The first place among these collections be- 
longs to the MS. numbered 338, formerly in 



1 See Lemmens : De duobus generibus vitarum S. P. Fran- 
cisci in Doct. Ant. Franc, P. II, p. 9; and de Kerval : Les 
Sources de l'histoirede S. Francois in Bullettiìio Critico, fase. 



2 See Sabatier : Opuscules, fase, x, p. 133; also Boehmer : 
Analektcn, p. vi. 





PAGE OF THE ASSISI MS. 338 CONTAINING CONCLUSION OF 
THE "SALUTATION OF THE VIRTUES" AND COMMENCEMENT 

of the "canticle of the sun." {See page xviii.) 



INTRODUCTION. xix 

the Sacro Convento, but now in the municipal 
library at Assisi. Critics who have studied this 
early codex are not in accord as to its age. 1 But 
it dates at least from the beginning of the four- 
teenth century. It includes eleven of the nine- 
teen works here translated. They are contained 
in three parchment books in the following order : 
fol. 12-16, The Second Rule of the Friars Minor; 2 
fol. 16-18, The Testament; 3 fol. 18-23, Admo- 
nitions; 4 fol. 23-28, The Letter to All the 
Faithful ; 5 fol. 28-31, The Letter to the General 
Chapter; 6 fol. 31-32, Instruction to Clerics on 
the Holy Eucharist ; 7 fol. 32, Salutation of the 
Virtues ; 8 fol. 33, The Canticle of the Sun ; 9 
fol. 34, Paraphrase of the Lord's Prayer; 10 
fol. 34-43, The Office of the Passion ; 11 and 
fol. 43, The Regulation for Hermitages. 12 

The same collection either wholly or in part 
is given in the well-known fourteenth century 
compilation of materia seraphica known as Fac 
secundum exemplar from the opening words of 
its prologue, and which may be found in the 



i See Ehrle, S J. : Die historischen Handschriften des Klos- 
ters San Francesco in Assisi in Archiv fur Litter atur, etc., 
t.I, p. 484; Mgr.Faloci Pulignani in the Misceli. Francescana, 
t. VI, p. 46 ; M. Sabatier : Vie de S. Francois, I, p. 370 ; and Pro- 
fessor Alessandri : Inventario dei manoscritti della biblioteca 
del conv. de S. Fra?icesco di Assisi, p. 57. 

2 See page 64. 3 See page 81. 

4 See page 5. 5 See page 98. 

6 See page in. ' See page 23. 

8 See page 20. See page 152. 

10 See page 139. 11 See page 155. 

12 See page 89. 



XX 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



Vatican MS. 4354, the Berlin MS. 196, the Lem- 
berg MS. 13 1, 1 and the Liegnitz MS. 12. 2 The 
Mazarin MSS. 989 and 1743,' as well as the 
Dusseldorf MS. 132, 4 may also be said to belong 
to this family of codices which present the 
writings of St. Francis in practically the same 
number and order as Mariano of Florence 
adopts in his Chronicle, composed about 1500. 5 
We now come to the second collection of 
St. Francis' writings, which is often found along 
with the traditional Legenda Trium Sociorum, 
and the Speculimi Perfectionis. It is represented 
by the celebrated Florentine codex at Ognis- 
santi, 6 the codex V25 at St. Isidore's, Rome, 7 the 
Vatican MS. 7650, 8 and the codex of the Capu- 

1 See Speculum Perfectio?iis (ed. Sabatier), p. clxxvi, for 
description of these three MSS. 

2 See Sabatier : Le Manuscrit de Liegnitz, in Opuscules, 
t. I, P- 33- This codex adds the Salutation of the Blessed 
Virgin and the letter to Brother Leo. 

3 On these MSS. see Spec. Per/, (ed. Sabatier), p. clxiv. 

4 This MS. adds the example : Fuit quidam miles, etc. 
See Actus B. Francisci (ed. Sabatier), cap. 66. 

5 The Chronicle of Mariano, so often quoted by Wadding, 
is now lost. It comprised five large volumes in folio. In the 
first of these he gives the catalogue of St. Francis' writings 
above referred to, and which is reproduced in the Quaracchi 
edition after Wadding. I have not deemed it necessary to 
translate it here. On Mariano and his works, see Sabatier : 
Bartholi, p. 137. 

On this MS. see Minocchi : " La Legenda trium Soci- 
orum," p. 13 ; also his " Nuovi Studii " in the Archiv. Storico 
Ital., t. XXIV, p. 266; see also Sabatier: Bartholi, p. cxxxv. 

7 On this MS. see Lemmens : Docl. Ant. Franc, P. Ill, 
P- 52. 

5 On this MS. see Sabatier : Bartholi, p. cxlvi. 



INTRO D UCTION. 



xxi 



chin convent at Foligno, 1 all of which contain 
St. Francis' works in almost the same order as 
that given by Bartholomew of Pisa, in his Liber 
Conform itatum. 2 

This second collection of the writings of 
St. Francis differs from the first one in several 
details. In the first place it omits the Instruc- 
tion to Clerics on the Holy Eucharist and adds 
the letter To a Certain Minister. 3 Again, the 
Assisi and Liegnitz MSS., which are typical ex- 
amples of the first collection, place the prayer, 
" O Almighty Eternal God," etc., 4 at the end of 
the letter to the General Chapter, whereas in the 
Ognissanti MS. and others of the same family 
this prayer is found elsewhere. So, too, in the 
Assisi and Liegnitz MSS. the Salutation of the 
Virtues is inscribed " Salutation of the Virtues 
which adorned the Soul of the Blessed Virgin 
Mary and which ought to adorn the holy soul/' 
while in the Ognissanti and kindred MSS. the 
title of this piece reads : " Salutation of the 
Virtues and of their efficacy in confounding 
Vices." These examples suffice to indicate that 
this twofold family of MSS. includes also a two- 

1 On this MS. see Faloci : Misc. Frances., t. VII, p. 45 ; 
and Sabatier : Opuscules, t. I, p. 359. It may be noted that 
the Foligno MS. conforms more to that of St. Isidore's and the 
Vatican MS. rather to that of Ognissanti. 

2 My references to the Conformities are to the Milan edition 
of 1510. The edition published in 1590, especially in the 
historical part, is mutilated and corrupted at almost every 
page, as I can personally attest after a comparison of it with 
several old MS. versions. 

See below, p. 121. 4 See below, p. 118. 



xxii WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 

fold reading, as becomes more evident from the 
variants noted elsewhere in the course of this 
work. Meanwhile, let us pass on from the 
MS. collections of St. Francis' writings to the 

Printed Editions. 

Two diverse compilations, each containing 
part of the Opuscula, were published at the be- 
ginning of the sixteenth century. The first of 
these, known as the Speculum Vitae B. Francisci 
et S odorimi ejus, 1 and quarried largely from the 
Actus Beati Francisci^ contains (fol. 126-127) 
among various legends and other narrations 
some of St. Francis' prayers, and (fol. 189) also 
the First Rule. The second compilation, which 
is of a much more polemic character, 2 and which 
contains a larger number of the Opuscula, ap- 
peared successively with some variations in form 
at Rouen in 1509 as the Speculum Minorimi, 3 
at Salamanca in 1 5 1 1 as the Monumenta Ordinis 
Minorimi f and at Paris in 15 12 as the Firma- 

1 It was printed at Venice " expensis domini Jordani de 
Dinslaken per Simonem de Luere " in 1504, and at Metz "per 
Jasparem HochfTeder " in 1509. Both these editions are iden- 
tical. It was republished by Spoelberch at Antwerp in 1620. 

2 It is largely a collection of declarations and expositions of 
the Rule, and of statutes, decrees, and privileges concerning 
the Order. 

3 The Speculum Morin, as it is called from the printer, 
Martin Morin, is now very rare. In a copy at the National 
Library, at Paris, it is ascribed to Fr. John Argomanez, a 
Spanish provincial. See Études Franc, t. XIII, p. 317. 

4 Also at Barcelona, in 1523. See Sbaralea : Supplementum, 
p. 51. 



INTR OD UCTION. 



XXlll 



menta trium Ordinimi B. Francisci. 1 The seven- 
teenth century saw the appearance of 

Wadding's Edition. 

The honor of making the first serious attempt 
to collect all the writings of St. Francis belongs 
to the renowned Annalist of the Order, Father 
Luke Wadding. 2 His celebrated edition of the 
Opiiscula 3 is distributed in three parts : Part I 
contains the Letters, Prayers, and the Testa- 
ment ; Part II, the Rules ; and Part III, the 
Monastic Conferences, the Office of the Passion 
and Canticles, followed by Apophthegms, Col- 
loquies, Prophecies, Parables, Examples, Bene- 
dictions, etc. 

Wadding's edition of the Opuscula differs 
mainly from all preceding collections in this, 
that whereas the latter contained only those 
pieces which as regards both matter and form 
were the handiwork of St. Francis, Wadding felt 
justified in including among St. Francis' writings 
many dicta of the Saint found in the early 
Legends. For example, St. Bonaventure 4 re- 
lates of St. Francis "Non enim securum esse 
putabat earum formarum introrsus haurire im- 

1 On the edition published at Venice, in 1513, seeSbaralea : 
Supplem., p. 196. 

2 See The Life of Father Luke Waddings by Fr. Joseph 
O'Shea, O.F.M. 

3 See Wadding : B. P. Francisci Assisiatis Opuscula, Ant- 
werp, 1623. See also his Scriptores Ordinis Mifiorum, p. 112 ; 
and Sbaralea : Supplem., p. 244. 

4 Leg. Maj\, V, 5. 



xx tv 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



agines." Wadding, in his sixth Conference, by 
changing putabat into puto, gives this passage as 
the ipsissima verba of St. Francis. Again, in 
the seventeenth Conference, he entirely changes 
the form of what St. Bonaventure elsewhere 1 
relates of St. Francis when he substitutes 
" Officium praedicationis Patri misericordiarum 
omni sacrificio est acceptius " for " Istius Mise- 
rationis officium Patri misericordiarum omni 
sacrificio firmabat acceptius." 

Thus it comes to pass that in Wadding's 
edition, side by side with the undisputed writ- 
ings of St. Francis, we find doubtful, even 
spurious, extracts from different sources attrib- 
uted to the Seraphic Father. It must ever 
remain a matter of regret that Wadding, instead 
of following the oldest MSS. that he had at 
hand, was content to transcribe the incomplete 
and often interpolated parts of them he found 
in second-hand compilations, like that of Mark 
of Lisbon. His work from our standpoint is 
vitiated by imperfect research and unreliable 
criticism. But if Wadding was more profuse 
than prudent in his attribution of Franciscan 
fragments to the Founder, it must be remem- 
bered that he wrote at a time when even the 
highest minds troubled themselves little enough 
about literary exactness. For what we now glo- 
rify as " scientific criticism" had not yet become 
the fashion. The faults therefore of Wadding's 
edition of the Opicscula are largely the faults of 

1 Leg. MaJ., VIII, I. 



INTR OD UCTION. 



XXV 



his time ; and considering the difficulties to be 
overcome, the result of his labors was very 
creditable. And if he had never undertaken the 
task of collecting St. Francis' writings, any at- 
tempt of ours to that end would be surely more 
arduous, and perhaps not so fruitful. 

Several editions of St. Francis' writings have 
appeared since Wadding's day, notably those 
published by de la Haye, 1 Von der Burg, 2 and 
Horoy. 3 But these editions are very imper- 
fect. Their authors, in spite of the advance 
made in historical criticism since Wadding's 
day, have merely reproduced and rejuvenated 
the edition of the great annalist. The same is 
true of the various translations of the Opuscula, 
— they are simply Wadding in Italian, 4 English, 5 
French, 6 German, 7 or Spanish, 8 as the case 
may be. 

On the other hand, M. Sabatier's strictures on 
the " numerous ecclesiastics" who have edited 

1 Opera Omnia S. Francisci, Paris, 1641. 

2 Opera B. P. Francisci, Cologne, 1849. 

3 Sii Francisci Assisiensis Opera Omnia, Paris. 1880 (vol. 
VI of Bibliotheca Patristica.) 

4 Oposciili di S. Francesco, by Fr. Bernardo da Fivizzano, 
O.M.Cap., Florence, 1880. The Latin text is also given in 
this edition. 

5 Works of St. Francis. Translated by a Religious of the 
Order. London, 1890. 

« CEuvres de S. Francois. Trans, of Berthaumier. Paris, 
1864. 

7 Leben, Regel, und Werke des h. Franziskus von Assisi. 
By Hereneus Haid. Ratisbon, 1856. 

8 Obras Completas del B. P. S. Francisco de Asis segun la 
coleccion del P. Wading o. Ternel, 1902. 



xxvi WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 

the writings of St. Francis, for not reprinting 
Wadding's comments on them, are # a trifle wide 
of the mark, seeing that their editions were pre- 
pared mainly for a class of readers whose point 
of view is practical and devotional, rather than 
theoretical and speculative, who read the writ- 
ings of the saints not merely as historical or 
literary documents, but as words of spirit and of 
life. For such a clientele critical notes would 
be caviare indeed. 

The remarkable upgrowth of interest in the 
sources of early Franciscan history that has 
characterized the literature of the past decade 
accentuated the need of a more perfect edition 
of St. Francis' writings. The matter was soon 
taken in hand by the Friars Minor at Quaracchi 
— already famous in the literary history of the 
Order — and in 1904 they issued the 

First Critical Edition 

of the Opuscida. 1 Without overlooking the 
internal character of each document, the 
Quaracchi editors based their edition upon the 
early MS. tradition, weighing by this standard 
all the various writings contained in the stereo- 
typed editions of St. Francis* works, with the 
result that many a familiar page that had come 
down to us on the good faith of Wadding was 

1 " Opuscida Saudi Patris Francisci Assisiensis sec. 
Codices MSS. emendata et denuo edita a PP. Collegii S. Bona- 
venturae. Ad Claras Aquas (Quaracchi), 1904." 



INTRO D UCTION. 



xx vii 



found wanting. Thus the seventeen letters 
commonly ascribed to St. Francis have been 
reduced to six, the Rules of the Second and 
Third Orders have been eliminated, only one of 
the twenty-eight monastic conferences, and one 
of the seven blessings, are left; most of the 
prayers have gone, and all the colloquies, prophe- 
cies, parables, etc., have likewise disappeared. 
Most likely the doubtful and suppositious works 
thus excluded often embody the doctrine and 
ideas of St. Francis ; to a greater or lesser ex- 
tent some of them may even be his in substance, 
but as there is no good reason to believe they 
are his own composition they are not entitled 
to a place among his writings. 

The authentic works of St. Francis left to us 
then, according to the Quaracchi edition, are the 
Admonitions, Salutation of the Virtues, Instruc- 
tion on the Blessed Sacrament, the First and 
Second Rules of the Friars Minor, the Testa- 
ment and Regulation for Hermitages, some frag- 
ments from the Rule of the Clares, Six Letters, 
the Praises of God, the Salutation of the Blessed 
Virgin, the Chartula containing the Landes and 
Benediction for Brother Leo, the prayer Ab- 
sorbeat, and the Office of the Passion. 

The Quaracchi edition does not therefore 
embody any new matter, but it contains for the 
first time in any edition of St. Francis' works 
the letter " To a Minister " in its entirety. For 
the rest, while purging the text of St. Francis' 
writings of the many doubtful and apocryphal 



xxviii 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



pieces with which they had come to be burdened 
in the course of time, the Quaracchi editors have 
perfected the text of the authentic writings by 
their emendations and collations, notes and com- 
ments, thus conferring the freedom of no small 
city upon the students of Franciscan sources. 

The year 1904 also saw the publication, almost 
simultaneously, of two other works dealing with 
the Opuscula oi St. Francis, written by well known 
professors at Bonn 1 and Munich, 2 and both of 
real value. 3 It would be foreign to our present 
purpose to examine either of these works in 
detail. Suffice it to say that they accord in sub- 
stance almost completely with the conclusions 
of the Quaracchi editors. If anything, they 
lean more on the side of kindliness toward cer- 
tain doubtful writings. Thanks to this trilogy 
of works, and to certain learned criticisms 
which they have called forth from Fr. Van 

1 H. Boehmer : Analekten zur Geschichte des Franciscus 
von Assisi. S. Francisci Opuscula. Tubingen and Leipzig, 
1904. 

2 W. Goetz : Die Quellen zur Geschichte des hi. Fran- 
ciscus von Assisi. Gotha, 1904. The part of this work deal- 
ing with the Opuscula already appeared in the Zeitschriftfur 
Kirchengeschichte. As there is some difference between the 
reprint and the original, I have quoted sometimes from one 
and sometimes from the other. 

3 There is also an excellent new French translation by Fr. 
Ubald d'Alencon, O.M.Cap.,— Les Opuscules de Sain/ Fran- 
cois d'Assise (Paris, Poussielgue, 1905). I have quoted from 
it elsewhere. A critical Italian edition is in preparation by Fr. 
Nicolò Dal-Gal, O.F.M., already well known for his contribu- 
tions to Franciscan history. 



IN TROD UCTION. 



xxix 



Ortroy, 1 M. Sabatier, 2 and Mr. Carmichael 3 
among others, we are now in a position to form 
a fairly accurate estimate of what St. Francis 
really wrote. 

It is obvious, however, that in dealing with 
writings like those of St. Francis we are left 
largely to the probabilities of criticism ; and 
criticism has by no means said the last word 
as to the authenticity of certain pieces. It may 
yet take away from St. Francis some writings 
now commonly ascribed to him ; it may even 
give back to him others at present with seem- 
ingly greater likelihood made over to one or 
another of his immediate followers. But in the 
long run, to whatever criticism St. Francis' 
writings may be subjected, the main lines will 
always remain the same. It may well be 
true as a recent writer 4 has remarked, that it is 
not yet the time to essay a complete English 
edition of St. Francis* writings, yet withal the 
lack of any translation of these writings in Eng- 
lish which aims at fulfilling the requirements of 
modern criticism has led me to think that Eng- 
lish students of Franciscan literature might be 
glad to have some such translation of them, 
however imperfect. To this end I have ventured 

1 See Analecta Bollandiana, fase. Ill, p. 411. 

2 Examen de quelques travaux recents sur les Opuscules 
de Saint Francois, in Opuscules, fase. X. 

3 " The Writings of St. Francis," by Montgomery Car- 
michael, in the Mo?ith, January, 1904. 

4 See The Words of St. Francis, by Anne Macdonell, p. 7, 
London, T904. 



xxx WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 

to prepare this humble volume, which may per- 
haps be suffered tentatively, at least, to stand in 
the gap which it is not worthy permanently to fill. 

My first object, then, is to give a literal 
and, I hope, accurate translation of the Latin 
text of the authentic writings of St. Francis as 
it stands in the critical Quaracchi edition. The 
present volume, however, represents something 
more than a mere translation of the Quaracchi 
text. In the first place it is not restricted to 
the Latin works of St. Francis, and as a conse- 
quence the " Canticle of the Sun," which does 
not figure in the Quaracchi edition, finds a place 
here. I have often deviated from the order of 
the Quaracchi edition and have distributed the 
critical notes throughout the book instead of 
relegating them to the end. I have added an 
Introduction, Appendix, Bibliography and Index, 
besides much original matter collected at Qua- 
racchi and elsewhere in Italy, when I was 
afforded an opportunity of consulting the original 
MS. authorities. I should state that I have not 
translated all the variants in the Latin text, 
but only such as change the sense. A table I 
had made for the purpose of indicating the prob- 
able date of each piece, I have omitted, since it 
remains a matter of pure conjecture when many 
were written. 

I am glad of this opportunity to record my 
sincere thanks to all those who have assisted 
me in any way in the preparation of this volume. 
Not only have I profited by the labors of the 



INTR OD UCTION. 



xxxi 



Fathers at Quaracchi, but I have enjoyed the 
rare advantage of Fr. Leonard Lemmens' per- 
sonal interest in the work. To him, therefore, 
my grateful recognition is first due. I wish 
further to acknowledge my indebtedness to 
Mr. Montgomery Carmichael, who, amid his 
own literary labors, made time to assist me with 
many helpful suggestions. Moreover, by placing 
at my disposal all the references to Holy Scrip- 
ture which occur in the Office of the Passion, 
which he had looked up and translated, he has 
afforded me very substantial aid. My thanks are 
also due to Father Stephen Donovan, O.F.M., for 
his kind cooperation in collating the text of the 
" Canticle of the Sun," in the Assisi MS., with 
other versions, and for contributing the transla- 
tion of it. For the generous loan of books of 
reference I am under obligation to Mgr. O'Hare, 
Father John J. Wynne, S.J., Fathers Ludger 
Beck, and Bede Oldegeering, O.F.M., and Mr. 
John A. Tennant ; for the gift of their own 
writings to Father Cuthbert, O.S.F.C., Luigi 
Suttina, and Prof. A. G. Little ; and for the 
photographs here reproduced to Mgr. Faloci 
Pulignani, M. Paul Sabatier and Signor Lunghi. 
I may perhaps be permitted to take this occasion 
to thank the Guardians at the Portiuncula, La 
Verna, St.Damian's, and the Carceri, as well as 
the Friars at St. Antony's and St. Isidore's at 
Rome, at Ognissanti, Florence, and the Mother 
Abbess at Santa Chiara, for their courtesy and 
hospitality. 



xxxii WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 

For the rest, it is with a clear sense of its 
many shortcomings and not without some diffi- 
dence that I offer this volume to the public. 
I shall be more than repaid for any labor its 
preparation may have entailed if its publication 
conduces ever so little toward making St. Francis 
better known and better loved. To this end I 
ask the reader to forget all that may be mine 
within these pages, and to remember only the 
words of him who, "saintlier than any among 
the saints, among sinners was as one of them- 
selves." 1 

Fr. Paschal Robinson, o.f.m., 

Franciscan Convent y Paters on, N.J. 
Feast of St. Agnes of A sis si, 1905. 



1 1 Cel. 29. 



PART I 



i 



ADMONITIONS, RULES, ETC 



I. 

Words of Admonition of our Holy Father St. 
Francis. 

nder this title a precious series 
of spiritual counsels on the relig- 
ious life has come down to us 
from the pen of St. Francis. The 
early Legends afford no indica- 
tion of the time or circumstances 
of the composition of these Ad- 
monitions; nor is it possible to determine by whom 
they were collected. But they accord so completely 
with the Saint's genuine works and are so redolent 
of his spirit that their authenticity is admitted by 
all. 1 Moreover, the various codices in which these 
Admonitions may be found are unanimous in attrib- 
uting them to St. Francis, while the number of the 
Admonitions 2 and the order in which they are given 
in the different codices are almost the same as in 
the Laurentian codex at Florence, dating from the 
thirteenth century. 

Codices containing the Admonitions of St. Francis 
are to be found at the following places : i. Assisi 
(Munic. lib. cod. 338, fol. 18); — 2. Berlin (Royal lib. 
cod. lat. 196, fol. 101); — 3. Florence (Laurentian lib. 

1 See Goetz : Quellen zur Geschichte des hi. Franz von 
Assisi, in Zeitschrift fur •« Kirchengeschichte , t. xxii, p. 551, 
and Van Ortroy, S.J., in Anal. Bollano 1 ., t. xxiv, fase, iii 
(1905), p. 411. 

2 The codex of St. Antony's College, Rome, omits the Ad- 
monitions numbered 11 and 22. It may be noted, however, 
that both these numbers are found at the end of the Speculum 
Perfectionis, ed. Lemmens. See Documenta Antiqua Fran- 
ciscana, P. II, p. 84. 




4 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



cod. X. Plut. XIX. dextr., fol. 448)5—4. Florence 
(cod. of the Convent of Ognissanti, fol. 5); — 5. St. 
Floriano (monast.lib. cod. XI. 148, fol. 38); — 6. Foligno 
(cod. of Capuchin Conv., fol. 21); — 7. Lemberg 
(Univ. lib. cod. 131, fol. 331); — 8. Liegnitz 1 (lib. of SS. 
Peter and Paul. cod. 12, fol. 131); — 9. Luttich (Munic. 
lib. cod. 343, fol. 154); — 10. Munich (Royal lib. cod. 
lat. 1 1 354, fol. 25, number 1 only); — 11. Naples 
(Nation, lib. cod. XII. F. 32, folio antepaen. numbers 
6-27); — 12. Oxford 1 (Bodl. lib. cod. Canon misceli. 
525, fol. 93); — 13. Paris (Nat. lib. cod. 18327, fol. 154); 
— 14, 15. Paris (Mazarin lib. cod. 1743, fol. 134, and 
cod. 989, fol. 191); — 16. Paris (codex at lib. of the 
Prot. theol. faculty, fol. 86); — 17. Pragite (Metrop. lib. 
cod. B. XC, fol. 244); — 18. Rome (codex at St. 
Antony's Coll., 3 fol. 77); — 19, 20. Rome (archiv. of St. 
Isidore's College, cod. y 25 , fol. 14, and cod. V73, fol. 11); 
— 21, 22. Rome (Vatic, lib. cod. 4354, fol. 39, and cod. 
7650, fol. 10); — 23. Toledo (capit. lib. cod. Cai. 25, no. 
11, fol. 65) and — 24. Volterra (Guarnacci lib. cod. 
225, fol. 141). 

Of the foregoing codices that in the Laurentian 
Library at Florence dates from the thirteenth century; 
those at Ognissanti, Florence, at Assisi, Berlin, St. 
Floriano, Oxford, Rome (St. Antony's, St. Isidore's, 
and the Vatican codex 4354), Toledo, and Volterra 
date from the fourteenth, and the others from the 
fifteenth century. 

For the Quaracchi edition of the Admonitions, upon 
which the present translation is based, the two oldest 
of all these codices, to wit, those of the Laurentian 

1 On this MS. see Sabatier, Opuscules, fase. ii. 
*- On this MS. see Little, Opuscules, fase. v. 
3 As to this codex see Lemmens : Documenta Antiqua 
Franciscana, P. Ill, p. 72. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



5 



Library at Florence and of the Municipal Library at 
Assisi, 1 have been used. Those at St. Isidore's, Rome, 
and Ognissanti, Florence, have also been consulted, 
besides the editions of the Admonitions found in the 
Monumenta Ordinis Minorum (Salamanca, 151 1, 
tract. 11, fol. 276 r), the Firmamento, Trium Ordinum 2 
(Paris, 151 2, P. I, fol. 19 r), and the Liber Conformi- 
tatum of Bartholomew of Pisa (Milan, 15 10, fruct. 
XII, P. 11). But for the titles and paragraphing, 
which differ more or less in different codices, the 
Laurentian codex has been followed. 3 
So much by way of preface to the 

ADMONITIONS. 

1, flDf t&e 'The Lord Jesus said to His 

fcortT* ^Botip* disciples : " I am the Way, 

and the Truth, and the Life. No 
man cometh to the Father, but by Me. If you had 
known Me you would, without doubt, have known 
My Father also : and from henceforth you shall 

1 Mgr. Faloci has edited the first of the Admonitions from 
this codex in his Miscellanea Francescana, t. vi, p. 96. 

2 In this edition, which Wadding has followed (fol. 21 v.), 
nos. 20, 21, and 23 are repeated. 

3 In places where variants are noted at the foot of the page 
the following abbreviations will be used: 

L. Laurentian Codex. 

As. Assisian Codex. 

O. Ognissanti Codex. 

An. Codex at St. Antony's College. 

Is. Codex at St. Isidore's College. 

Mon. Version of the Monumenta. 

Firm. Version of the Firmamenta. 

Pis. Version given by Bartholomew of Pisa in his Con- 
formities. 



6 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



know Him, and you have seen Him. Philip saith 
to Him: Lord,show us the Father,and it is enough 
for us. Jesus saith to him: Have I been so long 
a time with you and have you not known Me ? 
Philip, he that seeth Me seeth [My] Father also. 
How sayest thou, Shew us the Father ? " 1 The 
Father "inhabiteth light inaccessible," 2 and 
" God is a spirit," 3 and " no man hath seen God 
at any time." 4 Because God is a spirit, there- 
fore it is only by the spirit He can be seen, for 
" it is the spirit that quickeneth ; the flesh prof- 
iteth nothing." 5 For neither is the Son, inas- 
much as He is equal to the Father, seen by any 
one other than by the Father, other than by the 
Holy Ghost. Wherefore, all those who saw the 
Lord Jesus Christ according to humanity and 
did not see and believe according to the Spirit 
and the Divinity, that He was the Son of God, 
were condemned. In like manner, all those 
who behold the Sacrament of the Body of 
Christ which is sanctified by the word of the 
Lord upon the altar by the hands of the priest 
in the form of bread and wine, and who do not 
see and believe according to the Spirit and 
Divinity that It is really the most holy Body and 
Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, are condemned, 
He the Most High having declared it when He 
said, "This is My Body, and the Blood of the 
New Testament," 6 and " he that eateth My 



1 John 14: 6-9. 
8 John 4 : 24. 
5 John 6 : 64. 



2 1 Tim. 6: 16. 

* John 1 : 18. 

Mark 14 : 22-24. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



7 



Flesh and drinketh My Blood hath everlasting 
life." 1 

Wherefore [he who has] 2 the Spirit of the 
Lord which dwells in His faithful, he it is 
who receives the most holy Body and Blood of 
the Lord : all others who do not have this same 
Spirit and who presume to receive Him, eat and 
drink judgment to themselves. 3 Wherefore, "O 
ye sons of men, how long will you be dull of 
heart ?" 4 Why will you not know the truth and 
" believe in the Son of God?" 5 Behold daily 
He humbles Himself as when from His " royal 
throne " 6 He came into the womb of the Virgin ; 
daily He Himself comes to us with like humility ; 
daily He descends from the bosom of His 
Father upon the altar in the hands of the 
priest. And as He appeared in true flesh to the 
Holy Apostles, so now He shows Himself to us 
in the sacred Bread ; and as they by means of 
their fleshly eyes saw only His flesh, yet contem- 
plating Him with their spiritual eyes, believed 
Him to be God, so we, seeing bread and wine 
with bodily eyes, see and firmly believe it to be 
His most holy Body and true and living Blood. 
And in this way our Lord is ever with His 
faithful, as He Himself says : " Behold I am 
with you all days, even to the consummation of 
the world." 7 

1 John 6 : 55. 

2 These words are added in the text given by Pis. and Wadd. 

3 See I Cor. 11 : 29. 4 Ps. 4 : 3. 

5 John 9 : 35. Wis. 18 : 15. 

7 Matt. 28 : 20. 



8 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



2. C$f ©fail 

of Seltaoill* 



T^he Lord God said to Adam : 
* "Of every tree of paradise 
thou shalt eat. But of the tree 



of knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not 
eat." 1 Adam therefore might eat of every tree 
of paradise and so long as he did not offend 
against obedience he did not sin. For one eats 
of the tree of knowledge of good who appropri- 
ates to himself his own will 2 and prides himself 
upon the goods which the Lord publishes and 
works in him and thus, through the suggestion 
of the devil and transgression of the command- 
ment, he finds the apple of the knowledge of 
evil ; wherefore, it behooves that he suffer pun- 
ishment. 

3. flDf perfect T^he Lord says in the Gospel : 
anti imperfect * he "that doth not renounce 
fDbetnence* all that he possesseth cannot be " 



save his life, shall lose it." 4 That man leaves 
all he possesses and loses his body and his soul 
who abandons himself wholly to obedience in 
the hands of his superior, and whatever he does 
and says — provided he himself knows that what 
he does is good and not contrary to his [the 
superior's] will — is true obedience. And if at 
times a subject sees things which would be better 
or more useful to his soul than those which the 

1 Gen. 2 : 16-17. 

2 To which, namely, he has no right after religious profes- 
sion, having relinquished his will by the vow of obedience. 

3 Luke 14 : 33. 4 Matt. 16 : 25. 



a " disciple 



" 3 and " he that will 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 9 

superior commands him, let him sacrifice his 
will to God, let him strive to fulfil the work 
enjoined by the superior. This is true and 
charitable obedience which is pleasing to God 
and to one's neighbor. 

If, however, a superior command anything to 
a subject that is against his soul it is permissible 
for him to disobey, but he must not leave him 
[the superior], and if in consequence he suffer 
persecution from some, he should love them the 
more for God's sake. For he who would rather 
suffer persecution than wish to be separated 
from his brethren, truly abides in perfect obedi- 
ence because he lays down his life for his 
brothers. 1 For there are many religious who, 
under pretext of seeing better things than those 
which their superiors command, look back 2 and 
return to the vomit of their own will. 3 These 
are homicides and by their bad example cause 
the loss of many souls. 



4. €%at no 
one gioititi take 
JSuperiorje^ip 
upon Irimjself* 



did "not come to be minis- 



1 tered unto, but to minister," 
says the Lord. 4 Let those who 
are set above others glory in 
this superiority only as much as 
if they had been deputed to wash the feet of 
the brothers ; and if they are more perturbed 
by the loss of their superiorship than they would 
be by losing the office of washing feet, so much 



1 See John 15 : 13. 
3 See Prov. 26 : 11. 



2 See Luke 9 : 62. 
4 Matt. 20 : 28. 



IO 



WRITINGS OF ST FRANCIS. 



the more do they lay up treasures to the peril 
of their own soul. 



in ti)t Cross of Lord has placed you because 



according to the body and to His own likeness 
according to the spirit. 1 And all the creatures 
that are under heaven serve and know and obey 
their Creator in their own way better than you. 
And even the demons did not crucify Him, but 
you together with them crucified Him and still 
crucify Him by taking delight in vices and sins. 
Wherefore then can you glory ? For if you 
were so clever and wise that you possessed all 
science, and if you knew how to interpret every 
form of language and to investigate heavenly 
things minutely, you could not glory in all this, 
because one demon has known more of heavenly 
things and still knows more of earthly things 
than all men, although there may be some man 
who has received from the Lord a special knowl- 
edge of sovereign wisdom. In like manner, if 
you were handsomer and richer than all others, 
and even if you could work wonders and put the 
demons to flight, all these things are hurtful to 
you and in nowise belong to you, and in them 
you cannot glory ; that, however, in which 
we may glory is in our infirmities, 2 and in 

1 See Gen. i : 26. a See II Cor. 12 : 5. 



5. ^atnoonr 
jsfjoulti (jlorp sabe 




ti)t Horn* 



He has created and formed you 
to the image of His beloved Son 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



II 



bearing daily the holy cross of our Lord Jesus 
Christ. 



Lord followed Him in tribulation and persecu- 
tion and shame, in hunger and thirst, in infirmity 
and temptations and in all other ways ; 1 and for 
these things they have received everlasting life 
from the Lord. Wherefore it is a great shame 
for us, the servants of God, that, whereas the 
Saints have practised works, we should expect 
to receive honor and glory for reading and 
preaching the same. 

7. Stmt (Soon T^he Apostle says, "the letter 



esteemed more learned among others and that 
they may acquire great riches to leave to their 
relations and friends. And those religious are 
killed by the letter who will not follow the spirit 
of the Holy Scriptures, but who seek rather to 
know the words only and to interpret them to 
others. And they are quickened by the spirit 
of the Holy Scriptures who do not interpret 



6. AM t£e 
Snutatton of t£e 
Hortu 



T et us all, brothers, consider 
the Good Shepherd who to 
save His sheep bore the suffering 
of the Cross. The sheep of the 



WiniH 0f)outt) 
accompany 




eneth." 2 They are killed by 
the letter who seek only to know 
the words that they may be 



1 See John 10 : n ; Heb. 12 : 2 ; John 10 : 4 ; Rom. 8 : 35. 
2 II Cor. 3 : 6. 



12 WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



materially every text they know or wish to know, 
but who by word and example give them back 
to God from whom is all good. 

8. flDf sbotti* T^he Apostle affirms that " no 
ine tyt §in of * man can say the Lord Jesus 
«nbg* but by the Holy Ghost/' 1 and 

" there is none that doth good, 
no not one." 2 Whosoever, therefore, envies his 
brother on account of the good which the Lord 
says or does in him, commits a sin akin to blas- 
phemy, because he envies the Most High Him- 
self who says and does all that is good. 

9. flDf llobe* T^he Lord says in the Gospel, 

* " Love your enemies/' etc. 3 
He truly loves his enemy who does not grieve 
because of the wrong done to himself, but who 
is afflicted for love of God because of the sin on 
his [brother's] soul and who shows his love by 
his works. 

10. flDf Stoffe TThere are many who if they 
fortification* ' commit sin or suffer wrong 

often blame their enemy or 
their neighbor. But this is not right, for each 
one has his enemy in his power, — to wit, the 
body by which he sins. Wherefore blessed is 
that servant who always holds captive the enemy 

1 I Cor. 12:3. 2 Ps. 52 : 4. 

Matt. 5 : 44- 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



13 



thus given into his power and wisely guards 
himself from it, for so long as he acts thus no 
other enemy visible or invisible can do him harm. 



11. 3ft>at one HTo the servant of God nothing 
xamt not he * should be displeasing save 

tenuteti ht Bau sin. And no matter in what 
(Example* 1 way any one may sin, if the 

servant of God is troubled or 
angered — except this be through charity — he 
treasures up guilt to himself. 2 The servant of 
God who does not trouble himself or get angry 
about anything lives uprightly and without sin. 
And blessed is he who keeps nothing for him- 
self, rendering " to Caesar the things that are 
Caesar's and to God the things that are God's/' 3 



12. M T^hus may the servant of God 

j&notoms t£e * know if he has the Spirit of 

Spirit of <8otu God : if when the Lord works 
some good through him, his 
body — since it is ever at variance with all that is 
good — is not therefore puffed up ; but if he 
rather becomes viler in his own sight and if he 
esteems himself less than other men. 4 

1 This Admonition is wanting in codex An., but is found in 
the Speculum Perfectionis, ed. Lemmens. See Documenta 
Antiqua Franciscana, P. II, p. 84. 

2 See Rom. 2:5. 3 Matt. 22 : 21. 

4 Cod. O. and Is. read : "If therefore his body is purled up, 
he has not the Spirit of God. If, however, he becomes rather 
viler in his own sight, then he truly has the Spirit of God." 



14 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



13. w m* 

ttence* 



TTow much interior patience 
A * and humility a servant of 
God may have cannot be known 



so long as he is contented. 1 But when the time 
comes that those who ought to please him go 
against him, as much patience and humility as 
he then shows, so much has he and no more. 



apply themselves to prayers and offices, and prac- 
tise much abstinence and bodily mortification, 
but because of a single word which seems to be 
hurtful to their bodies or because of something 
being taken from them, they are forthwith scan- 
dalized and troubled. These are not poor in 
spirit : for he who is truly poor in spirit, hates 
himself and loves those who strike him on the 
cheek. 3 

15. £Df UDeaee* * * Olessed are the peacemakers : 
makers* for they shall be called the 



truly peacemakers who amidst all they suffer in 
this world maintain peace in soul and body for 
the love of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

1 Cod. O. reads : " so long as he enjoys everything accord - 
. ing to his wish and necessity." 

2 Matt. 5:3. 3 See Matt. 5 : 39. 
4 Matt. 5 : 9. 



14. Df ©Ob* 

ertp of Spirit* 




children of God. 



They are 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 15 

16. Df £Iean* Olessed are the clean of 
nci3!3 $eart* ^ heart : for they shall see 

God." 1 They are clean of heart 
who despise earthly things and always seek 
those of heaven, and who never cease to adore 
and contemplate the Lord God Living and True, 
with a pure heart and mind. 

17. flW ti>e Olessed is that servant who is 
gamble ^erbant not more puffed up because 
of <£ofc* of the good the Lord says and 

works through him than because 
of that which He says and works through others. 
A man sins who wishes to receive more from his 
neighbor than he is himself willing to give to 
the Lord God. 



18. flDf 
Companion 
tonarti one's 
jfèexspor* 

in a like case. 



Olessed is the man who bears 
with his neighbor according 
to the frailty of his nature as 
much as he would wish to be 
borne with by him if he should be 



19. ffl tyc Olessed is the servant who 
$appp anti gives up all his goods to the 

2*ni>app£ ^erbant* Lord God, for he who retains 
anything for himself hides " his 
Lord's money," 2 and that " which he thinketh he 
hath shall be taken away from him." 8 



1 Matt. 5 : 8. 
8 Luke 8: 18. 



' l See Matt. 25 : 18. 



l6 WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 

20. Df tj?e Dlessed is the servant who does 
(goon ant) fumble ^ not regard himself as better 
EUItBum** when he is esteemed and ex- 
tolled by men than when he is 

reputed as mean, simple, and despicable : for 
what a man is in the sight of God, so much he 
is, and no more. 1 Woe to that religious who is 
elevated in dignity by others, and who of his 
own will is not ready to descend. And blessed 
is that servant who is raised in dignity not by 
his own will and who always desires to be be- 
neath the feet of others. 

21. flDf tyz Dlessed is that religious who 
$app£ anli tye feels no pleasure or joy save 
Pain delicious* in most holy conversation and 

the works of the Lord, and who 
by these means leads men 2 to the love of God 
in joy and gladness. And woe to that religious 
who takes delight in idle and vain words and by 
this means provokes men to laughter. 

22. flDf t&e Dlessed is that servant who 
jFriboIoiijs anH does not speak through hope 
Salfeatitoe of reward and who does not 
EeliBioii** 3 manifest everything and is not 

"hasty to speak," 4 but who 

1 See Bonav. Leg. Maj., VI, i: "And he had these words con- 
tinually in his mouth : ' what a man is in the eyes of God, so 
much he is, and no more. ' " See also Imitation of Christ, Bk. 
Ill, Chap. L, where the same saying of St. Francis is quoted. 

- See Speculum Perfectionis, ed. Sabatier, p. 189. 

3 This Admonition (like No. n) is wanting in Cod. An., but 
is found in the Speculimi Perfectionis, ed. Lemmens. See 
Doc. Ant. Franc, P. II, p. 84. 

4 Prov. 29 : 20. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



17 



wisely foresees what he ought to say and answer. 
Woe to that religious who not concealing in his 
heart the good things which the Lord has dis- 
closed to him and who not manifesting them to 
others by his work, seeks rather through hope of 
reward to make them known to men by words : 
for now he receives his recompense and his 
hearers bear away little fruit. 

23. M 3True Olessed is the servant who 
Correction* U bears discipline, accusation, 

and blame from others as pa- 
tiently as if they came from himself. Blessed 
is the servant who, when reproved, mildly sub- 
mits, modestly obeys, humbly confesses, and 
willingly satisfies. Blessed is the servant who 
is not prompt to excuse himself and who humbly 
bears shame and reproof for sin when he is with- 
out fault. 

24. ADfUtnie Olessed is he 2 who shall be 
fyumilitv* 1 M found as humble among his 

subjects as if he were among his 
masters. Blessed is the servant who always 
continues under the rod of correction. He is 
"a faithful and wise servant " 3 who does not 
delay to punish himself for all his offences, 
interiorly by contrition and exteriorly by con- 
fession and by works of satisfaction. 

1 In Cod. O. numbers 23 and 24 are not divided. 

2 Cod. An. reads : " Blessed is that superior ..." 

3 Matt. 24 : 45. 



1 8 WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 

25. WQLxuz Olessed is that brother who 
ÌUbe* would love his brother as 

much when he is ill and not able 
to assist him as he loves him when he is well and 
able to assist him. Blessed is the brother who 
would love and fear his brother as much when 
he is far from him as he would when with him, 
and who would not say anything about him 
oehind his back that he could not with charity 
say in his presence. 



26, ®£st tyz Olessed is the servant of God 
Nerbante of *-J w h exhibits confidence in 
<g>o& gemili ixmor clerics who live uprightly accord- 
Clerics* ing to the form of the holy 

Roman Church. And woe to 
those who despise them : for even though they 
[the clerics] may be sinners, nevertheless no one 
ought to judge them, because the Lord Himself 
reserves to Himself alone the right of judging 
them. For as the administration with which 
they are charged, to wit, of the most holy Body 
and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which they 
receive and which they alone administer to 
others — is greater than all others, even so the 
sin of those who offend against them is greater 
than any against all the other men in this 
world. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



19 



27. flDf t£e Vlfhere there is charity and 
Virtues putting wisdom there is neither fear 

#tcej5 to nor ignorance. Where there is 

tli&U patience and humility there is 

neither anger nor worry. 1 Where 
there is poverty and joy there is neither cupidity 
nor avarice. Where there is quiet and medi- 
tation there is neither solicitude nor dissipation. 
Where there is the fear of the Lord to guard 
the house the enemy cannot find a way to enter. 
Where there is mercy and discretion there is 
neither superfluity nor hard-heartedness. 



28. M intima Olessed is the servant who 
(Soon lest it D treasures up in heaven 2 the 
be lost* good things which the Lord 

shows him and who does not 
wish to manifest them to men through the hope 
of reward, for the Most High will Himself mani- 
fest his works to whomsoever He may please. 
Blessed is the servant who keeps the secrets of 
the Lord in his heart. 3 

1 Cod. O. omits this sentence. 

2 See Matt. 6 : 20. 

3 St. Francis would often say to his brethren : " When a 
servant of God receives any divine inspiration in prayer, he 
ought to say, ' This consolation, O Lord, Thou hast sent from 
heaven to me, a most unworthy sinner, and I commit it to 
Thy care, for I know that I should be but a thief of Thy treas- 
ure.' And when he returns to prayer, he ought to bear him- 
self as a little one and a sinner, as if he had received no new 
grace from God." — St. Bonaventure, Leg. Maj., X, 4. 



20 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



II. 



Salutation of the Virtues. 
nomas of Celano, St. Francis' earliest biographer, 



* bears witness to the authenticity of this exquisite 
Salutation in his Second Life, written about 1247. 1 
It is found in the codices of Assisi, Berlin, Florence 
(Ognissanti MS.), Foligno, Liegnitz, Naples, Paris 
(Mazarin MSS. and MS. of Prot. theol. fac), and 
Rome (Vatican MSS.), above mentioned, 2 as well as 
at Dusseldorf (Royal arch. cod. B. 132), and is given 
by Bartholomew of Pisa in his Liber Conformita- 
tum* (fruct. XII, P. 11, Cap. 38). This Salutation 
was also published in the Speculum Vitae B. Fran- 
cisci et Sociorum Ejus (fol. 126 v) 4 and by Wad- 
ding, 5 who followed the Assisian codex. This codex, 
which is the oldest one containing the Salutation, 
has been used for the Quaracchi edition, which I 
have here followed, as well as the Ognissanti MS. 
and the version given in the Conformities. 
Now follows the 

salutation of the virtues. 6 
Hail, 7 queen wisdom ! May the Lord save 
thee with thy sister holy pure simplicity ! O 

1 "Wherefore," he writes of St. Francis, "in the praises of 
the virtues which he composed he says 1 Hail ! queen wisdom, 
God save Thee with Thy sister pure, holy simplicity.' " See 
2 Cel. 3, 119, for this Incipit. 

2 See page 3. 

3 In the text of the Conformities (which for the most part 
agrees with that of the Ognissanti MS.) the Salutation is pre- 
ceded by No. 27 of the Admonitions and begins with the words 
" There is absolutely no man," etc. 

* Ed. of Venice, 1504, and of Metz, 1509. 
6 Opuscula, Antwerp, 1623. 

* In the Assisi codex (as in that of Liegnitz) the title reads: 

(Notes 6 and 7 carried forward to ?iext page.) 




WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 21 

Lady, holy poverty, may the Lord save thee with 
thy sister holy humility ! O Lady, holy charity, 
may the Lord save thee with thy sister holy 
obedience ! O all ye most holy virtues, may the 
Lord, from whom you proceed and come, save 
you ! There is absolutely no man in the whole 
world who can possess one among you unless he 
first die. He who possesses one and does not 
offend the others, possesses all ; and he who 
offends one, possesses none and offends all ; and 
every one [of them] confounds vices and sins. 
Holy wisdom confounds Satan and all his wick- 
ednesses. Pure holy simplicity confounds all 
the wisdom of this world and the wisdom of 
the flesh. Holy poverty confounds cupidity and 
avarice and the cares of this world. Holy 
humility confounds pride and all the men of this 
world and all things that are in the world. Holy 
charity confounds all diabolical and fleshly 
temptations and all fleshly fears. Holy obedience 
confounds all bodily and fleshly desires and keeps 
the body mortified to the obedience of the spirit 
and to the obedience of one's brother and makes 
a man subject to all the men of this world and 
not to men alone, but also to all beasts and 
wild animals, so that they may do with him 
whatsoever they will, in so far as it may be 
granted to them from above by the Lord. 

"Of the virtues with which the Blessed Virgin Mary was 
adorned and with which a holy soul ought also to be adorned," 
whereas in the Ognissanti codex and others of the same class, 
the title is : " Salutation of the Virtues and of their effi- 
cacy in confounding Vice." (See Introduction.) 
7 Cod. As. omits " Hail." 



22 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



III. 



On Reverence for the Lord's Body and on the 
Cleanliness of the Altar. 

HThe arguments already adduced to establish the 



* authenticity of the Admonitions may also be used 
in behalf of this instruction addressed ' 1 to all clerics. ' ' 
It is found in eight of the codices above men- 
tioned — to wit, those of Assisi, Liegnitz, Paris (both 
Mazarin MSS. and at lib. of Prot. theol. fac), Rome 
(St. Antony's and St. Isidore's MS. Viz), and Dus- 
seldorf. In Wadding's edition of the Opuscula this 
instruction on the Blessed Sacrament is placed among 
the letters of St. Francis 1 (No. XIII), but the early 
codices do not give it in an epistolary form, 2 but 
rather as it is printed here without address or saluta- 
tion. For the present edition the Assisian codex 3 has 

1 Wadding, following Mariano of Florence, prefaces the 
letter with the following Salutation : " To my reverend mas- 
ters in Christ ; to all the clerics who are in the world and live 
conformably to the rules of the Catholic faith : brother Francis, 
their least one and unworthy servant, sends greeting with the 
greatest respect and kissing their feet. Since I am become 
the servant of all, but cannot, on account of my infirmities, 
address you personally and viva voce, I beg you to receive, 
with all love and charity, this remembrance of me and exhorta- 
tion which I write briefly." Wadding also (p. 45) adds at the 
end of this instruction the following words : " May our Lord 
Jesus Christ fill all my masters with His holy grace and com- 
fort them." 

2 Father Ubald d' Alencon ( Opuscules de Saint Francois, 
p. 21) is inclined, with M. Sabatier, to regard this instruction 
as a kind of postscript to St. Francis' letter to the General 
Chapter and to all the Friars. (See Speculum Perfectionis, 
ed. Sabatier, p. clxvi.) 

3 Mgr. Faloci has edited the Instruction after this codex ; 
see Misc. Francescana, t. VI, p. 95. 




WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



23 



been used as well as the codices of St. Antony's 
and St. Isidore's at Rome. The text is as follows : 

ON REVERENCE FOR THE LORD'S BODY AND ON 
THE CLEANLINESS OF THE ALTAR. 

Let us all consider, O clerics, the great sin and 
ignorance of which some are guilty regarding the 
most holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus 
Christ and His most holy Name and the written 
words of consecration. For we know that the 
Body cannot exist until after these words of 
consecration. For we have nothing and we see 
nothing of the Most High Himself in this world 
except [His] Body and Blood, names and words 
by which we have been created and redeemed 
from death to life. 

But let all those who administer such most 
holy mysteries, especially those who do so indif- 
ferently, consider among themselves how poor 
the chalices, corporals, and linens may be where 
the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ is 
sacrificed. And by many It is left in wretched 
places and carried by the way disrespectfully, 
received unworthily and administered to others 
indiscriminately. Again His Names and written 
words are sometimes trampled under foot, for 
the sensual man perceiveth not these things 
that are of God. 1 Shall we not by all these 
things be moved with a sense of duty when the 
good Lord Himself places Himself in our hands 
and we handle Him and receive Him daily ? 

1 See I Cor. 2 : 14. 



24 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



Are we unmindful that we must needs fall into 
His hands ? 

Let us then at once and resolutely correct 
these faults and others ; and wheresoever the 
most holy Body of our Lord Jesus Christ may 
be improperly reserved and abandoned, let It be 
removed thence and let It be put and enclosed 
in a precious place. In like manner where- 
soever the Names and written words of the Lord 
may be found in unclean places they ought to 
be collected and put away in a decent place. 
And we know that we are bound above all to 
observe all these things by the commandments 
of the Lord and the constitutions of holy Mother 
Church. And let him who does not act thus 
know that he shall have to render an account 
therefor before our Lord Jesus Christ on the 
day of judgment. And let him who may cause 
copies of this writing to be made, to the end 
that it may be the better observed, know that 
he is blessed by the Lord. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



25 



IV. 

Rules of the Friars Minor. 

The early history of the Seraphic legislation, to wit, 
the Rules of the Friars Minor, the Poor Ladies 
and the Brothers and Sisters of Penance, is intricate 
beyond measure, as those at all conversant with the 
subject are but too well aware. Withal, as regards 
the Rule of the Friars Minor, with which we are now 
more particularly concerned, St. Francis seems, on the 
whole, to have written it twice. We have the formal 
testimony of St. Bonaventure and other trustworthy 
authorities to this effect. Suffice it to say that in the 
third year after he underwent the great spiritual crisis 
we call conversion, "the servant of Christ, seeing 
that the number of his Friars was gradually increas- 
ing, wrote for himself and for them a form of life in 
simple words, laying as its irremovable foundation 
the observance of the holy Gospel and adding a few 
other things which seemed necessary for uniformity 
of life." 1 It was this "form of life," which has be- 
come known as the first Rule, that Innocent III ap- 
proved viva voce, April 23, 1209. 2 Some fourteen 
years later on, when the Order had greatly increased, 

1 See Bonav. Leg. Maj., Ill, 8. See also 1 Cel. 1, 5, and the 
Vita S. Francisci, by Julian of Spires, cap. iv. 

2 Although M. Sabatier {Vie de S. Francois, p. 100), follow- 
ing Wadding {Annales ad an. 1210, n. 220 seq.), fixes this event 
in the summer of 1210, it is far more probable that the appro- 
bation of the Rule took place on April 23, 1209, the date given 
by the Boilandists and the Seraphic Breviary. This latter 
date is not only more conformable to the ancient tradition of 
the Order (see Anal. Franciscana, t. Ill, p. 713) but involves 
no historic difficulties (see Appunti critici sulla cronologia 
della Vita di S. Francesco, by Father Leo Patrem, O.F.M., 
in the Oriente Serafico, Assisi, 1895, Voi. vii, nn. 4-12. 



26 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



Francis 1 1 desiring to bring into a shorter form the 
Rule handed down in which the words of the Gospel 
were scattered somewhat diffusely . . . caused a Rule 
to be written. . . . And this Rule . . . he com- 
mitted to the keeping of his Vicar, who, after a few 
days hadelapsed, declared that he had carelessly lost it. 
Once more the holy man . . . rewrote the Rule as 
at the first . . . and by Pope Honorius obtained its 
confirmation" 1 on November 29, 1223. Such in 
briefest outline is the genesis of the first and second 
Rules written by St. Francis for the Friars Minor. 

To these two Rules Prof. Karl Miiller 2 and M. Paul 
Sabatier 3 would fain add a third, written, as they aver, 
in 1 22 1. Their opinion, however, seems to rest upon 
a misconception, for the Rule which they describe as 
dating from 1221, is not a new one, but the same that 
Innocent III approved, not indeed in its original form, 
which has not come down to us, 4 but rather in the 
form it had assumed in the course of twelve years, 
as a consequence of many changes and additions. 5 

1 See Bonav. Leg. Ma/., IV, 11. 

2 Mùller: Anfànge des Minoriteli- Or dens und der Buss- 
briiderschaften (Freiburg, 1885), p. 4, seq. 

3 Sabatier : Vie de S. Francois d'Assise (Paris, 1894), p. 
288, seq. 

4 More than a century ago — in 1768 — Fr. Suyskens demon- 
strated that the lengthy Rule of twenty-three chapters could 
not have been presented to Pope Innocent by St. Francis in 
its present form. (See Acta S. S., t. ii, Oct.) All agree that 
the first Rule in its original form was very short and simple. 

5 Prof. Miiller was therefore right in attempting to recon- 
struct the Rule in its original form out of this longer one. He 
has almost conclusively demonstrated that the opening words 
of this original Rule were: " Regula et vita istorum fratrum 
haec est." (See Anfànge, pp. 14-25 ; 185-188.) Prof. Boehmer 
has also attempted to reconstruct it from various writings. 
See his Analekten, p. 27. See also 2 Cel. 3, no; Speculum 
Perfectionis (ed. Sabatier), c. 4, n. 42. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 27 



Early expositors of the Rule, such as Hugo de 
Digne 1 and Angelo Clareno, 2 in their works always 
represent the Rule of which we are now speaking as 
the first and original one. Moreover, none of the 
thirteenth century writers make mention of any third 
rule ; they speak only of the changes and accre- 
tions which the first Rule suffered between 1209 and 
1223. 3 

For example Jordan a Giano tells us that St. 
Francis chose Brother Caesar of Spires, a profound 
student of Scripture and a devoted friend, to assist 

1 His exposition of the Rule may be found in the Monu- 
menta Ordinis Minorum (Salamanca, 151 1, tract. 11, fol. 46 
v) and in the Firmamento, (Paris, 1512, p. iv, fol. 34 v). In 
chapter 6 (Mon., fol. 67 v ; Firm., fol. 48 r) he says : " This he 
lays down at greater length in the original rule as follows : 
' When it may be necessary let the friars go for alms,' " etc. 
(see below, p. 43). On Hugo de Digne see Sbaralea, Supple- 
mentum, p. 360; also Salimbene, Chron. Parmensis, 1857, 
passim. 

2 His exposition of the Rule has never been published,- 
although a critical edition is promised by Fr. Van Ortroy, S.J. 
(See Anal. Bolland., t. xxi, p. 441 seq.) Meanwhile it may 
be found at St. Isidore's, Rome, in the codex V92 ; at the Vati- 
can lib., in cod. Ottob. 522 (in part only) and Ottob. 666, and at 
the Royal lib. of Munich in cod. 23648. In this exposition 
Clareno says (cod. Ottob. 666, fol. 50 v): " In the Rule which 
Pope Innocent conceded to him and approved ... it was 
written thus: ' The Lord commands in the Gospel,' " etc. (see 
below, p. 41). Clareno died in 1337. On his writings see Fr. 
Ehrle, S.J., in the Archiv, vol. I (1885), pp. 509-69. 

3 To be sure, the traditional Legend of the Three Com- 
panions says of St. Francis : " He made many rules and tried 
them, before he made that which at the last he left to the 
brothers." (See Legenda III Sociorum, n. 35.) But unless 
these words are understood as referring to different versions 
of the same Rule, they only raise a new difficulty against the 
authenticity of this Legend. 



28 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



him in putting this Rule into shape, 1 and Jacques de 
Vitry, writing about 12 17, relates that the Friars 
" meet once a year . . . and then with the help of 
good men adopt and promulgate holy institutions 
approved by the Pope . " 2 One of these institutions has 
been recorded for us by Thomas of Celano in his 
Second Life. It appears that " on account of a gen- 
eral commotion in a certain chapter, St. Francis 
caused these words to be written : 1 Let the friars 
take care not to appear gloomy and sad like hypo- 
crites, but let them be jovial and merry, showing that 
they rejoice in the Lord, and becomingly courte- 
ous/ " 3 words which may be found in the seventh 
chapter of the first Rule. 4 Honorius III, on Septem- 
ber 22, 1220, issued a decree forbidding the Friars 
to leave the Order after having made profession, or 
to roam about 1 4 beyond the bounds of obedience," 
and this ordinance was added to the second chapter 
of the Rule. 5 

All permanent and powerful rules grow, as a recent 
writer 6 has justly remarked, and it was thuswise that 

1 " And the Blessed Francis seeing Brother Caesar learned 
in the Scriptures commissioned him to embellish with evangel- 
ical language the Rule which he himself had put together in 
simple words." Chro?i. Fr. Jordani a Jano: Analecta Franc, 
t. I, page 6, n. 15. Brother Jordan also notes "that accord- 
ing to the first Rule the Friars fasted on Wednesday and Fri- 
day." (L. c, p. 4, n. 11.) 

2 See Speculum Perfectionis (ed. Sabatier), Appendix, p. 
300; also Les Nouveaux mémoires de VAcadémie de 
Bruxelles, t. XXIII, pp. 29-33. Jacques de Vitry, died as 
Cardinal [Bishop of Frascati in 1244, leaving a number of 
writings in which St. Francis figures prominently. 

3 2 Cel., 3, 90. 4 See below, p. 41. 
5 See below, p. 34. 

G Canon Knox Little: St. Fra?icis of Assisi (1904), Appendix, 
p. 321. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



29 



the first Rule of the Friars Minor received constant 
additions in the form of constitutions enacted at the 
Chapters held at Portiuncula after 121 2 or otherwise 
— it is necessary to insist on this point 1 — during the 
fourteen years it was in force. It is not hard there- 
fore to understand why the texts we have of this 
Rule do not always agree, since these changes and 
additions did not come to the knowledge of all through 
the same channel. For example, in the tenth chapter, 
which deals with ' ' the sick brothers," we have two 
different readings: the one followed in the present 
translation is that found in the majority of the codices ; 2 
the other, which has been incorporated by Celano in 
his Second Life * has been used by Hugo de Digne in 
his exposition of the Rule. 4 So too in the twelfth 
chapter, which prescribes that the friars should avoid 
the company of women, we find the following addi- 
tion in the exposition of Angelo Clareno 5 and the 
Speculum Vitae B. Francisci : 6 ' ' Let no one walk 
abroad with them alone or eat out of the same plate 
with them at table," — words not to be found in the 
more common form of the Rule. 

It remains to say a word about the relation of this 
first Rule to the second and definitive one approved 
in 1223. In treating of the difference between these 
two Rules, M. Sabatier errs still more strangely. 
They had little in common, he avers, except the name, 
the second being the very antithesis of the first, 
which alone was truly Franciscan. 7 To say the truth 

1 See Van Ortroy, S.J., Annal Bolland., t. xxiv, fase, iii, 
1905, p. 413. 

2 See below, p. 44. 3 See 2 Cel., 3, no. 

4 See Mon. y fol. 68 v ; Firm., fol. 49 r. 

5 See Cod. Ottob. 666, fol. 99 v. 

6 See Speculum, fol. 193 v. 

7 " Celle de 1210 et celle qui fut approuvée par le pape le 



30 WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



this assertion is less conformable to reality than it is 
to the theories and prejudices of the French writer. 
In so far as the first and second Rules written by St. 
Francis for the Friars Minor may be said to differ, 
the difference lies in this that the second Rule is 
shorter, more precise, and more orderly; 1 but essen- 
tially and in substance it is clearly and truly the 
same as the first Rule. Indeed, the very wording of 
the second Rule already exists in great part in the 
first one, as any one must observe who makes an 
unbiassed comparison of the two. So true is this 
agreement between the two Rules that they are often « 
regarded as one and the same. Thus Pope Honorius 
III himself in his bull of 1223 confirming the second 
Rule makes no distinction between the two. " We 
confirm," he says, " the Rule of your Order approved 
by Pope Innocent, our predecessor, of happy mem- 
ory." 2 And Brother Elias, in a letter addressed to 
the friars ' ' living near Valenciennes, ' ' exhorts them 
to observe purely, inviolably, unweariedly the ' ' holy 
Rule approved by Pope Innocent and confirmed by 
Pope Honorius.' ' 3 Rightly then does Hugo de Digne 
(" spiritualis homo ultra modum ,} ) describe the dif- 
ference between the two Rules in his Exposition, 4 

29 Novembre, 1223," he writes, " n'avaient guère de commuti 
que le nom." . . . " Celle de 1210 seule est vraiment 
franciscaine. Celle de 1223 est indirectement l'ceuvre de 
TÉglise." — Vie de S. Francois, p. 289. 

1 See Le Monnier: History of St. Francis, p. 337. 

2 See SeraphiccB Legislationis Textus Originates (Quarac- 
chi, 1897), p. 35. 

3 This letter, which is dated " in the tenth year of the Pontifi- 
cate of Pope Honorius," may be found in the Annalibus 
HannonicE Fr. Jacobi de Guisia, lib. XXI, cap. xvii ; see 
Monumenta Germanics Historica, Scriptores, t. XXX, P. I, 
P- 294. 

4 See Mon., fol. 46 v ; Firm., fol. 34 v. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



31 



when he says : 1 ' Some things were afterwards omitted 
for the sake of brevity from the Rule approved by 
Pope Innocent before it was confirmed by the bull of 
Pope Honorius. " 1 

For the rest, M. Sabatier's assertion that the 
" Spiritual' ' friars at the beginning of the four- 
teenth century did not dream of using the first Rule 2 
can hardly be admitted. To refute it, it suffices to 
cite Angelo Clareno, the leader of the * ' Spiritual " 
friars, who so very often mentions the first Rule in 
his exposition and whose citations prove that in the 
k first quarter of the fourteenth century there was no 
memory of any other Rule, even in the camp of the 
rigorists. In a word, ' ' the opposition which the dis- 
tinguished French critic would fain set up between 
the two Rules, does not exist, and Chapter XV of 
his Life of St. Francis is not at all consonant with 
history." Such is the assertion of the Quaracchi edi- 
tors. Its truth will be best demonstrated by an 
examination of the text of both Rules, which now 
follow: 

FIRST RULE OF THE FRIARS MINOR 

Which St. Francis made and which Pope Inno- 
cent III confirmed without a Bull? 
In the Name of the Father and of the Son 
and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. This is the 

1 See Ehrle : " Controversen ùber die Anfànge des Minori- 
tenordens" in the Zeitschrift fur Katholische Theologie, 
t. XI, p. 725, seq. 

2 " A partir de Bonaventure," he writes, " la règie primitive 
tombe dans l'oubli. Les Franciscaines Spirituels du com- 
mencement du XIV siècle ne songèrent pas à l'en tirer." See 
Spec. Per/, (ed. Sab.), p. ix. 

3 In preparing the Quaracchi text, which is the one I trans- 
late here, the codices at St. Antony's and St. Isidore's, and 



32 WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 

life that Brother Francis begged might be con- 
ceded to him and confirmed by the Lord Pope 
Innocent. And he [the Pope] has conceded and 
confirmed it to him and to his brothers present 
and future. 

Brother Francis, and whoever may be at the 
head of this religion, promises obedience and 
reverence to our Lord Pope Innocent and to his 
successors. And the other brothers shall be 
bound to obey Brother Francis and his suc- 
cessors. 1 

i. — That the Brothers ought to live in Obedience 
without Property and in Chastity. 
The Rule and life of these brothers is this : 
namely s to live in obedience and chastity, and 
without property, and to follow the doctrine and 
footsteps of our Lord Jesus Christ, who says : 
" If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast, 
and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treas- 
ure in heaven, and come, follow Me." 2 And : 
" If any man will come after Me, let him deny 
himself and take up his cross and follow Me ; " 3 

the Florentine codex at Ognissanti were used, besides the 
versions of this Rule found in the Speculum, Minorum, 
Monumenta, and Firmamenta (see Introduction for descrip- 
tion of these codices and editions). The expositions of the 
Rule by Hugo de Digne and Angelo Clareno, already men- 
tioned, have often been consulted, as well as the Conform- 
ities of Bartholomew of Pisa. The text of the first Rule, 
given in part in the Conformities, often agrees with the 
MSS. of Ognissanti and St. Isidore's. 

1 This last sentence is omitted in Mon. and Firm., also by 
Wadding. 

2 Matt. 19: 31. a Matt. 16 : 24. 



WRITINGS OF ST FRANCIS. 



33 



in like manner : " If any man come to Me, and 
hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and 
children, and brethren and sisters, yea, and his 
own life also, he cannot be My disciple/' 1 " And 
everyone that hath left father or mother, brothers 
or sisters, or wife, or children or lands, for My 
sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall 
possess life everlasting." 2 

2. — Of the Reception and Clothing of the Brothers. 

If any one, wishing by divine inspiration to 
embrace this manner of life, comes to our 
brothers, let him be kindly received by them- 
And if he be firmly resolved to undertake our 
life, let the brothers take great care not to 
meddle with his temporal affairs, but let them 
present him as soon as possible to their minister. 
Let the minister receive him kindly, and en- 
courage him, and diligently explain to him the 
tenor of our life. This being done, if he be willing 
and able, with safety of conscience and without 
impediment, let him sell all his goods and en- 
deavor to distribute them to the poor. But let 
the brothers and the ministers of the brothers 
be careful not to interfere in any way in his 
affairs, and let them not receive any money, 
either themselves or through any person acting 
as intermediary ; if however they should be in 
want, the brothers may accept other necessaries 
for the body, money excepted, by reason of their 
necessity, like other poor. And when he [the 

1 Luke 14 : 26. 2 See Matt. 19 : 29. 



34 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



candidate] shall have returned, let the minister 
grant him the habit of probation for a year ; 
that is to say, two tunics without a hood and cord 
and breeches and a chaperon 1 reaching to the gir- 
dle. The year of probation being finished, let 
him be received to obedience. Afterwards it 
shall not be lawful for him to pass to another 
Order, nor to " wander about beyond obedience/' 
according to the commandment of the Lord 
Pope. 2 For according to the Gospel "no man 
putting his hand to the plough, and looking back, 
is fit for the kingdom of God." 3 If, however, 
anyone should present himself who cannot with- 
out difficulty give away his goods, but has the 
spiritual will to relinquish them, it shall suffice. 
No one shall be received contrary to the form 
and institution of the holy Church. 

But the other brothers who have promised 
obedience may have one tunic with a hood, and 
another without a hood, if necessity require it, 
and a cord and breeches. And let all the brothers 
be clothed with mean garments, and they may 
mend them with sackcloth and other pieces, 
with the blessing of God, for the Lord says in 
the Gospel : they that are in costly apparel and 
live delicately and they that are clothed in soft 
garments are in the houses of kings. 4 And 
although they should be called hypocrites, let 

1 From the Latin capavo. See Du Cange, Glossar, latin. 

2 See the bull Cum secundum of Honorius III, dated Sep- 
tember 22, 1220 (Bnllariinn Francisca?ium, t. i, p. 6.) 

3 Luke 9: 62. 4 See Matt. 11 : S ; Luke 7 : 25. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



35 



them not cease to do good ; let them not desire 
rich clothes in this world, that they may possess 
a garment in the kingdom of heaven. 

3. — Of the Divine Office and of the Fast. 

The Lord says : " This kind [of devil] can go 
out by nothing but by fasting and prayer " ; 1 and 
again : " When you fast be not as the hypocrites, 
sad." 2 For this reason let all the brothers, 
whether clerics or laics, say the Divine Office, 
the praises and prayers which they ought to say. 
The clerics shall say the Office, and say it for 
the living and the dead, according to the custom 
of clerics; but to satisfy for the defect and 
negligence of the brothers, let them say every 
day Miserere mei, with the Pater noster ; for the 
deceased brothers let them say De profundis, 
with Pater noster. And they may have only the 
books necessary to perform their Office ; and 
the lay-brothers who know how to read the 
Psalter may also have one; but the others who 
do not know how to read may not have a book. 
The lay-brothers however shall say : Credo in 
Deum, and twenty-four Paternosters with Gloria 
Patri for Matins, but for Lauds, five ; for Prime, 
Tierce, Sext, and Nones, for each, seven Pater- 
nosters with Gloria Patri ; for Vespers, twelve ; 
for Compline, Credo in Deum and seven Pater- 
nosters with Gloria Patri ; for the dead, seven 
Paternosters with Requiem aeternam ; and for 

1 See Mark 9 : 28. a Matt. 6 : 16. 



36 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



the defect and negligence of the brothers, three 
Paternosters every day. 

And all the brothers shall likewise fast from 
the feast of All Saints until the Nativity of 
our Lord, and from Epiphany, when our Lord 
Jesus Christ began to fast, until Easter; but at 
other times let them not be bound to fast accord- 
ing to this life except on Fridays. And they 
may eat of all foods which are placed before 
them, according to the Gospel. 1 

4. — Of the Ministers and the other Brothers : how 
they shall be ranged. 

In the Name of the Lord let all the brothers 
who are appointed ministers and servants of the 
other brothers place their brothers in the prov- 
inces or places where they may be, and let them 
often visit and spiritually admonish and console 
them. And let all my other blessed brothers dili- 
gently obey them in those things which look to 
the salvation of the soul and are not contrary to 
our life. Let them observe among themselves 
what the Lord says : " Whatsoever you would 
that men should do to you, do you also to them," 2 
and " what you do not wish done to you, do it not 
to others." 3 And let the ministers and servants 
remember that the Lord says : I have not "come 
to be ministered unto, but to minister," 4 and 
that to them is committed the care of the souls 
of their brothers, of whom, if any should be lost 

1 See Luke 10 : 8. 2 Matt. 7: 12. 

3 See Tob. 4:6. 4 Matt. 20 : 28. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



37 



through their fault and bad example, they will 
have to give an account before the Lord Jesus 
Christ in the day of judgment. 

5. — Of the Correction of the Brothers who offend. 

Therefore take care of your souls and of those 
of your brothers, for " it is a fearful thing to fall 
into the hands of the living God." 1 If however 
one of the ministers should command some one 
of the brothers anything contrary to our life or 
against his soul, the brother is not bound to obey 
him, because that is not obedience in which a 
fault or sin is committed. Nevertheless, let 
all the brothers who are subject to the ministers 
and servants consider reasonably and carefully 
the deeds of the ministers and servants. And if 
they should see any one of them walking accord- 
ing to the flesh and not according to the spirit, 
according to the right way of our life, after the 
third admonition, if he will not amend, let him be 
reported to the minister and servant of the whole 
fraternity in the Whitsun Chapter, in spite 
of any obstacle that may stand in the way. If 
however among the brothers, wherever they may 
be, there should be some brother who desires to 
live according to the flesh, and not according 
to the spirit, let the brothers with whom he is 
admonish, instruct, and correct him humbly and 
diligently. And if after the third admonition 
he will not amend, let them as soon as possible 
send him, or make the matter known to his 

1 Heb. 10 : 31. 



33 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



minister and servant, and let the minister and 
servant do with him what may seem to him most 
expedient before God. 

And let all the brothers, the ministers and 
servants as well as the others, take care not to 
be troubled or angered because of the fault or 
bad example of another, for the devil desires to 
corrupt many through the sin of one ; but let 
them spiritually help him who has sinned, as best 
they can ; for he that is whole needs not a phy- 
sician, but he that is sick. 1 

In like manner let not all the brothers have 
power and authority, especially among them- 
selves, for as the Lord says in the Gospel : " The 
princes of the Gentiles lord it over them : and 
they that are the greater exercise power upon 
them." 2 It shall not be thus among the brothers, 
but whosoever will be the greater among them, 
let him be their minister and servant, 3 and he 
that is the greater among them let him be as 
the younger, 4 and he who is the first, let him be 
as the last. Let not any brother do evil or 
speak evil to another ; let them rather in the 
spirit of charity willingly serve and obey each 
other : and this is the true and holy obedience 
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And let all the broth- 
ers as often soever as they may have declined 
from the commandments of God, and wandered 
from obedience, know that, as the prophet says, 5 



1 See Matt. 9:12. 
3 See Matt. 23 : 11. 
See Ps. 118 : 21. 



Matt. 20 : 25. 
4 See Luke 22 : 26. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



39 



they are cursed out of obedience as long as they 
continue consciously in such a sin. And when 
they persevere in the commandments of the 
Lord, which they have promised by the holy 
Gospel and their life, let them know that they 
abide in true obedience, and are blessed by God, 

6. — Of the Recourse of the Brothers to their Min- 
isters and that no Brother may be called Prior, 

Let the brothers, in whatsoever places they 
may be, if they cannot observe our life, have 
recourse as soon as possible to their minister, 
making this known to him. But let the minister 
endeavor to provide for them in such a way as he 
would wish to be dealt with himself if he were in 
the like case. And let no one be called Prior, 
but let all in general be called Friars Minor. 
And let one wash the feet of the other. 

7. — Of the Manner of serving and working. 

Let the brothers in whatever places they may 
be among others to serve or to work, not be 
chamberlains, nor cellarers, nor overseers in the 
houses of those whom they serve, and let them 
not accept any employment which might cause 
scandal, or be injurious to their soul, 1 but let 
them be inferior and subject to all who are in 
the same house. 

And let the brothers who know how to work, 
labor and exercise themselves in that art they 
may understand, if it be not contrary to the 

1 See Mark 8 : 36. 



40 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



salvation of their soul, and they can exercise it 
becomingly. For the prophet says : " For thou 
shalt eat the labors of thy hands ; blessed art 
thou, and it shall be well with thee " ; 1 and the 
Apostle : " If any man will not work, neither 
let him eat." 2 And let every man abide in the 
art or employment wherein he was called. 3 And 
for their labor they may receive all necessary 
things, except money. And if they be in want, 
let them seek for alms like other brothers. And 
they may have the tools and implements neces- 
sary for their work. Let all the brothers apply 
themselves with diligence to good works, for it 
is written : " Be always busy in some good work, 
that the devil may find thee occupied ; " 4 and 
again: " Idleness is an enemy to the soul." 5 
Therefore the servants of God ought always to 
continue in prayer or in some other good work. 

Let the brothers take care that wherever 
they may be, whether in hermitages or in other 
places, they never appropriate any place to them- 
selves, or maintain it against another. And 
whoever may come to them, either a friend or a 
foe, a thief or a robber, let them receive him 
kindly. And wherever the brothers are and in 
whatsoever place they may find themselves, let 
them spiritually and diligently show reverence 

1 Ps. 127 : 2. - II Thess. 3 : 10. 

3 See I Cor. 7 : 24. 

* St. Jerome says: "Semper facito aliquid boni operis, ut 
diabolus te inveniat occupatimi." Epis. 125 (alias 4), n. 11. 

6 St. Anselm says ; " Otiositas inimica est animae." Epist. 
49. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



41 



and honor toward one another without murmur- 
ing. 1 And let them take care not to appear 
exteriorly sad and gloomy like hypocrites, but 
let them show themselves to be joyful and 
contented in the Lord, merry and becomingly 
courteous. 2 

8. — That the Brothers must not receive Money. 

The Lord commands in the Gospel : " Take 
heed, beware of all malice and avarice and guard 
yourselves from the solicitudes of this world, 
and the cares of this life." 3 Therefore let none 
of the brothers, wherever he may be or whither- 
soever he may go, carry or receive money or coin 
in any manner, or cause it to be received, either 
for clothing, or for books, or as the price of 
any labor, or indeed for any reason, except on 
account of the manifest necessity of the sick 
brothers. For we ought not to have more use 
and esteem of money and coin than of stones. 
And the devil seeks to blind those who desire or 
value it more than stones. Let us therefore 
take care lest after having left all things we lose 
the kingdom of heaven for such a trifle. And 
if we should chance to find money in any place, 
let us no more regard it than the dust we tread 
under our feet, 4 for it is " vanity of vanities, and 
all is vanity." 5 And if perchance, which God 

1 See I Peter 4:9. 2 See above, page 28, 

3 See Luke 12 : 15, and 21 : 34. 

4 See Leg. III. Soc, 11. 35. 

5 Eccle. 1 : 2. 



42 WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 

forbid, it should happen that any brother should 
collect or have money or coin, except only be- 
cause of the aforesaid necessity of the sick, let 
all the brothers hold him for a false brother, a 
thief, a robber, and one having a purse, unless 
he should become truly penitent. And let the 
brothers in nowise receive money for alms 1 or 
cause it to be received, seek it or cause it to be 
sought, or money for other houses or places ; 
nor let them go with any person seeking money 
or coin for such places. But the brothers may 
perform all other services which are not contrary 
to our life, with the blessing of God. The broth- 
ers may however for the manifest necessity of 
the lepers ask alms for them. But let them be 
very wary of money. But let all the brothers 
likewise take great heed not to search the world 
for any filthy lucre. 

9. — Of asking for Alms. 

Let all the brothers strive to follow the 
humility and poverty of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
and let them remember that we ought to have 
nothing else in the whole world, except as the 
Apostle says : " Having food and wherewith to 
be covered, with these we are content. 2 " And 
they ought to rejoice when they converse with 
mean and despised persons, with the poor and 

J O., Is. and Pis. read "money for alms ;" Clar. and Spec, 
read "alms of money;" An., Mon. and Wadding read 
" money or alms." 

- I Tim. 6 : 8. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 43 

the weak, with the infirm and lepers, and with 
those who beg in the streets. And when it may 
be necessary, let them go for alms. And let 
them not be ashamed thereof, but rather remem- 
ber that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the 
Living and Omnipotent God, set His face " as 
a hard rock," 1 and was not ashamed, and was 
poor, and a stranger, and lived on alms, He Him- 
self and the Blessed Virgin and His disciples. 
And when men may treat them with contempt, 
and refuse to give them an alms, let them give 
thanks for this to God, because for these shames 
they shall receive great honor before the tribunal 
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And let them know 
that the injuries shall not be imputed to those 
who suffer them, but to those who offer them. 
And alms is an inheritance and a right which is 
due to the poor, which our Lord Jesus Christ 
purchased for us. And the brothers who labor 
in seeking it will have a great recompense, and 
they will procure and acquire a reward for those 
who give ; for all that men leave in this world 
shall perish, but for the charity and alms-deeds 
they have done they will receive a reward from 
God. 

And let one make known clearly his wants to 
another, in order that he may find and receive 
what are necessary for him. And let everyone 
love and nourish his brother as a mother loves 
and nourishes her son, in so far as God gives 
them grace. And " let not him that eateth des- 

1 Is. 50 : 7. 



44 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



pise him that eateth not ; and he that eateth not, 
let him not judge him that eateth." 1 And when- 
soever a necessity shall arise, it is lawful for all 
the brothers, wherever they may be, to eat of all 
food that men can eat, as our Lord said of David, 
who "did eat the loaves of proposition, which was 
not lawful to eat but for the priests." 2 And 
let them remember what the Lord says : "and 
take heed to yourselves, lest perhaps your hearts 
be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, 
and the cares of this life : and that they come 
upon you suddenly. For as a snare shall it come 
upon all that sit upon the face of the whole 
earth/' 3 And in like manner in time of mani- 
fest necessity let all the brothers act in their 
needs, as our Lord shall give them grace, for 
necessity has no law. 

io. — Of the sick Brothers, 

If any of the brothers fall into sickness, wher- 
ever he may be, let the others not leave him, un- 
less one of the brothers, or more if it be neces- 
sary, be appointed to serve him as they would 
wish to be served themselves ; but in urgent 
necessity they may commit him to some person 
who will take care of him in his infirmity. And 
I ask the sick brother that he give thanks to the 
Creator for all things, and that he desire to be 
as God wills him to be, whether sick or well ; 
forali whom the Lord has predestined to eternal 

1 Rom. 14:3. 2 Mark 2 : 26. 

3 Luke 21 : 34~35- 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



45 



life 1 are disciplined by the rod of afflictions and 
infirmities, and the spirit of compunction ; as 
the Lord says: "Such as I love I rebuke and 
chastise." 2 If, however, he be disquieted and 
angry, either against God or against the brothers, 
or perhaps ask eagerly for remedies, desiring too 
much to deliver his body which is soon to die, 
which is an enemy to the soul, this comes to him 
from evil and he is fleshly, and seems not to be of 
the brothers, because he loves his body more 
than his soul. 3 



ii. — That the Brothers ought not to speak evil 
or detract, but ought to love one another. 

And let all the brothers take care not to calum- 
niate anyone, nor to contend in words ; 4 let them 
indeed study to maintain silence as far as 
God gives them grace. Let them also not dis- 
pute among themselves or with others, but let 
them be ready to answer with humility, saying : 
" we are unprofitable servants." 5 And let them 
not be angry, for "whosoever is angry with his 
brother shall be in danger of the judgment. And 
whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall 
be in danger of the council. And whosoever 
shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell 
fire." 6 And let them love one another, as the 

1 See Acts 13 : 48. Apoc. 3 : 19. 

3 See 2 Cel. 3, no; also Hugo le Digne, /. c. f fol. 68 v. and 
Spec. Per/, (ed. Sabatier), chap. 4.2. 

4 See II Tim. 2 : 14. Luke 17 : 10. 
6 Matt. 5 : 22. 



46 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



Lord says : " This is My commandment, that you 
love one another, as I have loved you. 1 " And let 
them show their love by the works 2 they do for 
each other, according as the Apostle says : "let 
us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and 
in truth/' 3 Let them " speak evil of no man," 4 
nor murmur, nor detract others, for it is written : 
" Whisperers and detractors are hateful to God." 5 
And let them be " gentle, showing all mildness 
toward all men." 6 Let them not judge and not 
condemn, and, as the Lord says, let them not 
pay attention to the least sins of others, but 
rather let them recount their own in the bitter- 
ness of their soul. 7 And let them " strive to 
enter by the narrow gate," 8 for the Lord says : 
" How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way 
that leadeth to life, and few there are that 
find it !" 9 



12. — Of avoiding tmbecomiiig Looks and the 
Company of Women. 

Let all the brothers, wherever they are or 
may go, carefully avoid unbecoming looks, and 
company of women, and let no one converse 
with them alone. 10 Let the priests speak to them 
honestly, giving them penance or some spiritual 
counsel. And let no woman whatsoever be re- 

i John 15 : 12. 2 Jas. 2": 18. 

:i I John 3: 18. 4 Tit. 3 : 2. 

5 Rom. 1 : 29-30. °Tit. 3: 2. 

7 Is. 3S : 15. « Luke 13: 24. 

y Matt. 7 : 14. 1" See above, p. 29. 



WRITINGS OF ST FRANCIS. 



47 



ceived to obedience by any brother, 1 but spiritual 
counsel being given to her let her do penance 
where she wills. Let us all carefully watch over 
ourselves, and hold all our members in subjec- 
tion, for the Lord says : " Whosoever shall look 
on a woman to lust after her, hath already com- 
mitted adultery with her in his heart/' 2 

13. — Of the Punishment of Fornicators. 
If any brother by the instigation of the devil 
should commit fornication, let him be deprived 
of the habit of the Order which he has lost by 
his base iniquity and let him put it aside wholly, 
and let him be altogether expelled from our reli- 
gion. And let him afterwards do penance for his 
sins. 

14. — How the Brothers should go through the 
World. 

When the brothers travel through the world, 
let them carry nothing by the way, neither bag, 
nor purse, nor bread, nor money, nor a staff. 
And whatsoever house they shall enter, let them 
first say, " Peace be to this house/' and remain- 
ing in the same house, let them eat and drink 
what things they have. 3 Let them not resist 
evil, 4 but if anyone should strike them on the 
cheek, let them turn to him the other ; and if 
anyone take away their garment, let them not 

1 This prohibition refers to a vow of obedience made by a 
woman to her spiritual director, as Fr. Van Ortroy points out. 
►See A?ial. Boll , t. xxiv, fase, iv, p. 523. 

2 Matt. 5 : 28. 3 See Luke 9 : 3 ; 10 : 4-8. 
4 See Matt. 5: 39. 



4S 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



forbid him the tunic also. Let them give to 
everyone that asketh them, and if anyone take 
away their goods, let them not ask them again. 1 

15. — That the Brothers may not keep Beasts nor 

ride. 

I enjoin all the brothers, both clerics and 
laics, that when they travel through the world, 
or reside in places, they in no wise, either with 
them or with others or in any other way, have 
any kind of beast of burden. Nor is it lawful 
for them to ride on horseback unless they are 
compelled by infirmity or great necessity. 

16. — Of those zvho go among the Saracens and 

other Infidels. 

The Lord says : " Behold, I send you as sheep 
in the midst of wolves. Be ye therefore wise as 
serpents and simple as doves." 2 Wherefore, 
whoever of the brothers may wish, by divine 
inspiration, to go among the Saracens and other 
infidels, let them go with the permission of their 
minister and servant. But let the minister give 
them leave and not refuse them, if he sees they 
are fit to be sent ; he will be held to render an 
account to the Lord if in this or in other things 
he acts indiscreetly. The brothers, however, who 
go may conduct themselves in two ways spirit- 
ually among them. One way is not to make 
disputes or contentions; but let them be " sub- 

1 See Luke 6: 29-30. 2 Matt. 10: 16. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



49 



ject to every human creature for God's sake," 1 
yet confessing themselves to be Christians. The 
other way is that when they see it is pleasing to 
God, they announce the Word of God, that they 
may believe in Almighty God, — Father, and Son, 
and Holy Ghost, the Creater of all, our Lord 
the Redeemer and Saviour the Son, and that 
they should be baptized and be made Christians, 
because, " unless a man be born again of water 
and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the 
kingdom of God." 2 

These and other things which please God they 
may say to them, for the Lord says in the Gos- 
pel : " Everyone that shall confess Me before 
men, I will also confess him before My Father 
who is in heaven;" 3 and "he that shall be 
ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son 
of Man shall be ashamed, when He shall come in 
His majesty and that of His Father, and of the 
holy angels." 4 

And let all the brothers, wherever they may 
be, remember that they have given themselves, 
and have relinquished their bodies to our Lord 
Jesus Christ ; and for love of Him they ought 
to expose themselves to enemies both visible and 
invisible, for the Lord says : " Whosoever shall 
lose his life for My sake, shall save it" 6 in eternal 
life. " Blessed are they that suffer persecution 
for justice' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of 



i I Pet. 2 : 13. 

3 Matt. 10 : 32. 

5 Mark 8: 35; Luke 9 : 24. 



2 John 3 : 5. 
4 Luke 9 : 26. 



50 



WRITINGS OF ST FRANCIS. 



heaven/' 1 "If they have persecuted Me, they 
will also persecute you." 2 If however they 
should persecute you in one city, flee to 
another. 3 " Blessed are ye when they shall 
revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that 
is evil against you, untruly, for My sake." 4 "Be 
glad in that day and rejoice, for your reward is 
great in heaven. " 5 "I say to you, my friends, 
be not afraid of them who kill the body, and 
after that have no more that they can do." 6 
" See that ye are not troubled." 7 " In your pa- 
tience you shall possess your souls." 8 "But he 
that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be 
saved." 9 

17. — Of Preachers. 

Let none of the brothers preach contrary to 
the form and institution of the holy Roman 
Church, and unless this has been conceded to 
him by his minister. But let the minister take 
care that he does not grant this leave indiscreetly 
to anyone. Nevertheless, let all the brothers 
preach by their works. And let no minister or 
preacher appropriate to himself the ministry of 
brothers or the office of preaching, but let him 
give up his office without any contradiction at 
whatever hour it may be enjoined him. Where- 
fore I beseech in the charity which God is 10 all 

1 Matt. 5 : 10. John 15 : 20. 

3 See Matt. 10 : 23. Matt. 5 : 11-12. 

5 Luke 6 : 23. Luke 12 : 4. 

7 Matt. 24 : 6. Luke 21 : 19. 

• Matt. 10 : 22. 10 See I John 4 : 8. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 5 [ 

my brothers, preachers, prayers, or laborers, both 
clerics and laics, that they study to humble 
themselves in all things and that they glory 
not, nor rejoice, nor inwardly exalt themselves 
on account of good words and works, nor indeed 
for any good which God may sometimes say or 
do and operate in them or by them, according to 
what the Lord says : " But yet rejoice not, in 
this that spirits are subject unto you/' 1 And let 
us know for certain that nothing belongs to us 
but vices and sins. And we ought rather to re- 
joice when we "fall into divers temptations," 2 
and when we bear some afflictions or sorrows of 
soul or body in this world for the sake of eternal 
life. Let us then all, brothers, avoid all pride 
and vainglory. Let us keep ourselves from the 
wisdom of this world, and the prudence of the 
flesh ; for the spirit of the world wishes and cares 
much for words, but little for work ; and it seeks 
not religion and interior sanctity of spirit, but 
wishes and desires a religion and sanctity appear- 
ing from without to men. And these are they 
of whom the Lord says : " Amen, I say unto 
you, they have received their reward." 3 But the 
spirit of the Lord wishes the flesh to be morti- 
fied and despised, and to be considered vile, ab- 
ject, and contemptible ; and it studies humility 
and patience, pure simplicity, and true peace of 
mind, and always desires above all things divine 
fear and divine wisdom, and the divine love of 
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. 

1 Luke io : 20. 2 James 1:2. 3 Matt. 6 : 2. 



52 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



And let us refer all good to the Lord God 
most High and Supreme ; let us acknowledge 
that all good belongs to Him, and let us give 
thanks for all to Him from whom all good pro- 
ceeds. And may He, the most High and Su- 
preme, only True God, have, and may there be 
rendered to Him and may He receive, all honors 
and reverences, all praises and benedictions, all 
thanks and all glory, to whom all good belongs, 
who alone is good. 1 And when we see or hear 
evil said or God blasphemed, let us bless and 
thank and praise the Lord who is blessed for 
ever. Amen. 

1 8. — How the Ministers should meet together. 

Each minister mav assemble with his brothers 
every year wherever he may please on the Feast 
of St. Michael the Archangel, to treat of those 
things which belong to God. And let all the 
ministers w T ho are in parts beyond the sea and 
beyond the mountains come once in three years, 
and the other ministers once every year to the 
chapter on Whit Sunday, at the Church of St. 
Mary of the Portiuncula, unless it be other- 
wise ordered by the minister and servant of the 
whole brotherhood. 

19. — That all tiie Brothers must live in a Catholic 

way. 

Let all the brothers be Catholics, and live and 
speak in a Catholic manner. But if anyone 

1 See Luke 18 : 19. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



53 



should err from the Catholic faith and life in 
word or in deed, and will not amend, let him be 
altogether expelled from our fraternity. And let 
us hold all clerics and religious as our masters 
in those things which regard the salvation of 
souls, if they do not deviate from our religion, 
and let us reverence their office and order and 
administration in the Lord. 

20. — Of the Confession of the Brothers and of 
the Reception of the Body and Blood 
of onr Lord J e sits Chnst. 

Let my blessed brothers, both clerics and 
laics, confess their sinsto priests of our religion. 
And if they cannot do this, let them confess to 
other discreet and Catholic priests, knowing 
firmly and hoping that from whatever Catholic 
priests they may receive penance and absolution, 
they will undoubtedly be absolved from these 
sins if they take care to observe humbly and 
faithfully the penance enjoined them. If how- 
ever they cannot then have a priest, let them 
confess to their brother, as the Apostle James 
says : " Confess your sins to one another ; " 1 but 
let them not on this account fail to have recourse 
to priests, for to priests alone the power of bind- 
ing and loosing has been given. And thus con- 
trite and having confessed, let them receive the 
Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ with 
great humility and veneration, calling to mind 

1 James 5 : 16. 



54 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



what the Lord Himself says : " He that eateth 
My Flesh and drinketh My Blood hath everlast- 
ing life ; " 1 and " Do this for a commemoration 
of Me." 2 

21. — Of the Praise and Exhortation which all 
the Brothers may make. 

And this or the like exhortation and praise all 
my brothers may announce with the blessing of 
God, whenever it may please them among what- 
ever men they may be : Fear and honor, praise 
and bless God, give thanks 3 and adore the Lord 
God Almighty in Trinity and Unity, Father, and 
Son, and Holy Ghost, the Creator of all. "Do 
penance," 4 brin forth fruits worthy of penance, 5 
for know that w must soon die. " Give and it 
shall be given U you ; " 6 " Forgive, and you 
shall be forgiven/' 7 And if you do not forgive 
men their sins, the Lord will not forgive you 
your sins. 8 Confess all your sins. 9 Blessed are 
they who shall die in penitence, for they shall 
be in the kingdom of heaven. Woe to those 
who do not die in penitence, for they shall be 
the children of the devil, whose works they do, 10 
and they shall go into eternal fire. Beware and 
abstain from all evil, and persevere in good 
until the end. 

i John 6 : 55. Luke 22 : 19. 

» I Thess. 5 : 18. Matt. 3 : 2. 

b Luke 3 : 8. Luke 6 : 38. 

7 Luke 6 : 37. See Mark 11 : 26. 

9 See James 5 : 16. See John 8 : 44. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



55 



22. — Of the Admonition of the Brothers. 

Let us all, brothers, give heed to what the Lord 
says : " Love your enemies, and do good to them 
that hate you." 1 For our Lord Jesus, whose foot- 
steps we ought to follow, 2 called His betrayer 
friend, 3 and offered Himself willingly to His cru- 
cifiers. Therefore all those who unjustly inflict 
upon us tribulations and anguishes, shames and 
injuries, sorrows and torments, martyrdom and 
death, are our friends whom we ought to love 
much, because we gain eternal life by that which 
they make us suffer. And let us hate our body 
with its vices and sins, because by living carnally 
it wishes to deprive us of the love of our Lord 
Jesus Christ and eternal life, and to lose itself 
with all else in hell ; for we by our own fault are 
corrupt, miserable, and averse to good, but 
prompt and willing to evil ; because, as the Lord 
says in the Gospel : from the heart of men 
proceed and come evil thoughts, adulteries, forni- 
cations, murders, thefts, covetousness, wicked- 
ness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, false 
testimonies, blasphemy, foolishness. 4 All these 
evils come from within, from the heart of man, 
and these are what defile a man. 

But now, after having renounced the world, 
we have nothing else to do but to be solicitous, 
to follow the will of God, and to please Him. 



i Matt. 5 : 44. 

3 See Matt. 26 : 

4 See Matt. 15 : 



2 See I Peter 2 : 21. 

50- 

19, and Mark 7 : 21-22. 



56 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



Let us take much care that we be not the way- 
side, or the stony or thorny ground, according to 
what the Lord says in the Gospel : The seed 
is the word of God. And that which fell by the 
wayside and was trampled under foot are they 
that hear the word and do not understand ; then 
the devil cometh, and snatcheth that which has 
been sown in their hearts and taketh the word out 
of their hearts, lest believing they should be 
saved. But that which fell upon the rock are 
they who, when they hear the word, at once re- 
ceive it with joy ; but when tribulation and 
persecution arise on account of the word, they 
are immediately scandalized, and these have no 
roots in themselves, but are for a while, for they 
believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall 
away. But that which fell among thorns are 
they who hear the word of God, and the solici- 
tude and cares of this world, the fallacies of 
riches, and the desire of other things entering 
in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. 
But that sown on good ground are they who, in 
a good and best heart, hearing the word under- 
stand and keep it, and bring forth fruit in pa- 
tience. 1 

And for this reason, brothers, let us, as the 
Lord says, "let the dead bury their dead." c 
And let us be much on our guard against the 
malice and cunning of Satan, who desires that 
man should not give his heart and mind to the 

1 See Matt. 13: 19-23; Mark 4 : 15-20; Luke 8 : 11-15. 
-Matt. 8: 22. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 57 

Lord God, and who going about seeks to seduce 
the heart of man under pretext of some reward 
or benefit, to smother the words and precepts of 
the Lord from memory, and who wishes to blind 
the heart of man by wordly business and cares, 
and to dwell there, as the Lord says : " When 
an unclean spirit is gone out of a man, hewalk- 
eth through dry places seeking rest and findeth 
none ; then he saith : ' I will return into my 
house whence I came out/ And coming he 
findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then 
he goeth and taketh with him seven other spirits 
more wicked than himself, and they enter in, and 
dwell there ; and the last state of that man is 
made worse than the first/' 1 Wherefore let us 
all, brothers, watch much, lest under pretext of 
some reward or labor or aid we lose or separate 
our mind and heart from the Lord. But I beseech 
all the brothers, both the ministers and others, 
in the charity which God is, 2 that, overcoming 
all obstacles and putting aside all care and solici- 
tude, they strive in the best manner they are 
able, to serve, love, and honor the Lord God with 
a clean heart and a pure mind, which He seeks 
above all. And let us always make in us a taber- 
nacle and dwelling-place for Him, who is the 
Lord God Omnipotent, Father, and Son, and 
Holy Ghost, who says: " Watch, therefore, 
praying at all times, that you may be accounted 
worthy to escape " all the evils " that are to come, 

1 Matt. 12 : 43-45 ; see Luke 11 : 24-2Ó. 
* See I John 4 : 16. 



5S 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



and to stand before the Son of Man/' 1 And 
when you stand to pray, 2 say, " Our Father, who 
art in heaven/' And let us adore Him with 
a pure heart, for " we ought always to pray, and 
not to faint," 3 for the Father seeks such adorers. 
" God is a Spirit, and they that adore Him, must 
adore Him in spirit and in truth." 4 And let us 
have recourse to Him as the " Shepherd and 
Bishop of our souls," 5 who says: "I am the 
Good Shepherd," who feed My sheep, " and I lay 
down My life for My flock." 6 But all you are 
brothers. " And call none your father upon 
earth ; for one is your Father who is in heaven. 
Neither be ye called masters, for one is your 
master, who is in heaven, Christ." 7 " If you 
abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you 
shall ask whatever you will, and it shall be done 
unto you." 8 " Where there are two or three 
gathered together in My Name, there am I in 
the midst of them." 9 " Behold, I am with you 
all days, even to the consummation of the 
world." 10 "The words that I have spoken to 
you are spirit and life." 11 " I am the Way, the 
Truth, and the Life." 12 

Let us therefore hold fast the words, the 
life and doctrine and holy Gospel of Him who 
deigned for us to ask His Father to manifest to 

i Luke 2i : 36. 2 See Mark 11 : 25. 

3 Luke 18 : 1. 4 John 4 : 24. 

6 I Peter 2: 25. See John 10: 11 and 15. 

7 See Matt. 23 : 8-10. 8 John 15 : 7. 

9 Matt. 18: 20. 10 Matt. 28: 20. 

John 6 : 64. John 14 : 6. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



59 



us His Name, saying : Father, I have manifested 
Thy Name to the men whom Thou hast given 
Me because the words which Thou gavest Me I 
have given to them, and they have received them, 
and have known in very deed that I came forth 
out of Thee, and they have believed that Thou 
didst send Me. I pray for them, I pray not for 
the world, but for them whom Thou hast given 
Me, because they are Thine and all My things 
are Thine. Holy Father, keep them in Thy 
Name whom Thou hast given Me, that they may 
be one, as We also are. These things I speak in 
the world that they may have joy filled in them- 
selves. I have given them Thy word, and the 
world hath hated them, because they are not of 
the world, as I also am not of the world. I pray 
not that Thou shouldst take them out of the 
world, but that Thou shouldst keep them from 
evil. Sanctify them in truth. Thy word is truth. 
As Thou hast sent Me into the world, I have sent 
them into the world. And for them I do sanctify 
Myself, that they may be sanctified in truth. 
Not for them only do I pray, but for them also 
who through their word shall believe in Me, 
that they may be consummated in one, and that 
the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, 
and hast loved them, as Thou hast also loved 
Me. And I have made known Thy Name to 
them, that the love wherewith Thou hast loved 
Me may be in them, and I in them. Father, I 
will that where I am, they also whom Thou hast 



6o WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



given Me may be with Me, that they may see 
Thy glory in Thy kingdom. 1 

23. — Prayer, Praise, and Thanksgiving? 

Almighty, most Holy, most High and Su- 
preme God, Holy and Just Father, Lord King 
of heaven and earth, for Thyself we give thanks 
to Thee because by Thy holy will, and by Thine 
only Son, Thou hast created all things spiritual 
and corporal in the Holy Ghost and didst place 
us made to Thine image and likeness 3 in para- 
dise, whence we fell by our own fault. And we 
give Thee thanks because, as by Thy Son Thou 
didst create us, so by the true and holy love with 
which Thou hast loved us, 4 Thou didst cause 
Him, true God and true Man, to be born of the 
glorious and ever- Virgin, most Blessed holy 
Mary, and didst will that He should redeem us 
captives by His Cross and Blood and Death. 
And we give thanks to Thee because Thy Son 
Himself is to come again in the glory of His 
Majesty to put the wicked who have not done 
penance for their sins, and have not known Thee, 
in eternal fire, and to say to all who have known 
Thee and adored Thee, and served Thee in 
penance : " Come, ye blessed of My Father, 
possess the kingdom prepared for you from the 
beginning of the world." 6 

1 See John 17 : 6-26. 

2 The Speculum Minorimi condenses this chapter. 

3 See Gen. 1 : 26 ; 2 : 15. 

4 See John 17 : 26. 6 Matt. 25 : 34. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 6l 

And since all we wretches and sinners are 
not worthy to name Thee, we humbly beseech 
Thee, that our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy beloved 
Son, in whom Thou art well pleased, 1 together 
with the Holy Ghost, the Paraclete, may give 
thanks to Thee as it is pleasing to Thee and 
Them, for all ; He suffices Thee always for all 
through whom Thou hast done so much for us. 
Alleluia. And we earnestly beg the glorious 
Mother, the most Blessed Mary ever-Virgin, 
Blessed Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and all the 
choirs of the blessed spirits, seraphim, cherubim, 
and thrones, dominations, principalities and 
powers, virtues, angels and archangels, blessed 
John the Baptist, John the Evangelist, Peter, 
Paul, the blessed patriarchs and prophets, inno- 
cents, apostles, evangelists, disciples, martyrs, 
confessors, virgins, blessed Elias and Enoch, and 
all the Saints who have been and are, and shall 
be, for Thy love, that they may, as it is pleasing 
to Thee, give thanks for these things to the 
most high, true God, eternal and living, with 
Thy most dear Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and 
the Holy Ghost, the Paraclete, for ever and ever. 
Amen. Alleluia. 

And all we, brothers minor, useless servants, 
humbly entreat and beseech all those within the 
holy Catholic and Apostolic Church wishing to 
serve God, and all ecclesiastical Orders, priests, 
deacons, subdeacons, acolytes, exorcists, lectors, 
door-keepers, and all clerics ; all religious men 

1 See Matt. 17 : 5. 



62 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



and women, all boys and children, poor and 
needy, kings and princes, laborers, husbandmen, 
servants and masters, all virgins, continent, and 
married people, laics, men and women, all infants, 
youths, young men and old, healthy and sick, 
all small and great, and all peoples, clans, tribes, 
and tongues, all nations and all men in all the 
earth, who are and shall be, that we may per- 
severe in the true faith and in doing penance, 
for otherwise no one can be saved. Let us all 
love with all our heart, with all our soul, with all 
our mind, with all our strength and fortitude, 
with all our understanding and with all our 
powers, 1 with our whole might and whole affec- 
tion, with our innermost parts, our whole desires, 
and wills, the Lord God, who has given, and 
gives to us all, the whole body, the whole soul, 
and our life ; who has created and redeemed us, 
and by His mercy alone will save us ; who has 
done and does all good to us, miserable and 
wretched, vile, unclean, ungrateful, and evil. 

Let us therefore desire nothing else, wish for 
nothing else, and let nothing please and delight 
us except our Creator and Redeemer, and Sa- 
viour, the only true God, who is full of good, all 
good, entire good, the true and supreme good, 
who alone is good, 2 merciful and kind, gentle and 
sweet, who alone is holy, just, true, and upright, 
who alone is benign, pure, and clean, from whom, 
and through whom, and in whom is all mercy, 

i See Deut. 6 : 5 ; Mark 12 : 30 and 33 ; Luke 10 : 27. 
8 See Luke 18 : 19. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



63 



all grace, all glory of all penitents and of the 
just, and of all the blessed rejoicing in heaven. 
Let nothing therefore hinder us, let nothing 
separate us, let nothing come between us. Let 
us all, everywhere, in everyplace, at every hour, 
and at all times, daily and continually believe, 
truly and humbly, and let us hold in our hearts, 
and love, honor, adore, serve, praise and bless, 
glorify and exalt, magnify and give thanks to the 
most High and Supreme, Eternal God, in Trinity 
and Unity, to the Father, and Son, and Holy 
Ghost, to the Creator of all, to the Saviour of 
all who believe and hope in Him, and love Him, 
who, without beginning or end, is inmutable, 
invisible, unerring, ineffable, incomprehensible, 
unfathomable, blessed, praiseworthy, glorious, 
exalted, sublime, most high, sweet, amiable, 
lovable, and always wholly desirable above all 
forever and ever. 

In the Name of the Lord, I beseech all the 
brothers that they learn the tenor and sense of 
those things that are written in this life for the 
salvation of our souls, and frequently recall them 
to mind. And I pray God that He who is Al- 
mighty, Three in One, may bless all who teach, 
learn, hold, remember, and fulfil those things as 
often as they repeat and do what is there written 
for our salvation. And I entreat all, kissing 
their feet, to love greatly, keep and treasure up 
these things. And on the part of Almighty 
God and of the Lord Pope, and by obedience, I, 
Brother Francis, strictly command and enjoin 



6 4 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



that no one subtract from those things that are 
written in this life, or add anything written to it 
over and above, and that the brothers have no 
other Rule. 

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to 
the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is 
now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. 

SECOND RULE OF THE FRIARS MINOR. 1 

1. — In the Name of the Lord begins the life of 

the Minor BrotJiers. 

The Rule and life of the Minor Brothers is this, 
namely, to observe the holy Gospel of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, by living in obedience, without 
property and in chastity. Brother Francis 
promises obedience and reverence to the Lord 
Pope Honorius and to his successors canonically 
elected and to the Roman Church. And let the 
other brothers be bound to obey Brother Francis 
and his successors. 

2. — Of those who wish to embrace this Life and 

how they ought to be received. 

If any wish to embrace this life and come to 
our brothers, let them send them to their pro- 

1 This is the text of 1223 and represents the Rule at present 
observed throughout the first Franciscan Order. It is here 
translated according to the text of the original Bull which is 
preserved at the Sacro Convento in Assisi. A duplicate of this 
document, contained in the Pontifical Register at the Vatican 
Library, has been consulted for certain passages less legible 
in the original. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 65 

vincial ministers, to whom alone and not to 
others is accorded the power of receiving broth- 
ers. But let the ministers diligently examine 
them regarding the Catholic faith and the Sacra- 
ments of the Church. And if they believe all 
these things, and if they will confess them faith- 
fully and observe them firmly to the end, and if 
they have no wives, or, if they have and their 
wives have already entered a monastery, or have, 
with the authority of the diocesan bishop, given 
them permission after having made a vow of 
continence, and if the wives be of such an age 
that no suspicion may arise concerning them, 
let them [the ministers] say to them the word of 
the holy Gospel, 1 that they go and sell all their 
goods and strive to distribute them to the poor. 
If they should not be able to do this, their good 
will suffices. And the brothers and their minis- 
ters must take care not to be solicitous about 
their temporal affairs, that they may freely do 
with their affairs whatsoever the Lord may inspire 
them. If, however, counsel should be required, 
the ministers shall have power of sending them 
to some God-fearing men by whose advice their 
goods may be distributed to the poor. After- 
wards, let them give them clothes of probation, 
to wit, two tunics without a hood and a cord and 
breeches and a chaperon reaching to the cord, 
unless at some time the same ministers may de- 
cide otherwise according to God. The year of 
probation being finished, they shall be received 

1 See Matt. 19 : 21. 



66 WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 

to obedience, promising to observe always this 
life and rule. And according to the command 
of the Lord Pope 1 in no wise shall it be allowed 
them to go out of this religion, because, accord- 
ing to the holy Gospel : " No man putting his 
hand to the plough and looking back is fit for 
the kingdom of God/' 2 And let those who have 
already promised obedience have one tunic with 
a hood, and if they wish it another without a 
hood. And those who are obliged by necessity 
may wear shoes. And let all the brothers be 
clothed in poor garments and they may patch 
them with pieces of sackcloth and other things, 
with the blessing of God. I admonish and exhort 
them not to despise or judge men whom they see 
clothed in fine and showy garments using dainty 
meats and drinks, but rather let each one judge 
and despise himself. 

3. — Of the Divine Office, and of Fasting ; and 
how the Brothers must go through 
the world. 

Let the clerics perform the Divine Office 
according to the order of the holy Roman Church, 
with the exception of the Psalter; wherefore 
they may have breviaries. 3 But let the laics say 
twenty-four Paternosters for Matins ; five for 

1 See above, page 34, note 2. 2 Luke 9 : 62. 

3 This passage : ex quo habere poterunt breviario,, may also 
be rendered: "as soon as they can have breviaries." (See 
Wadding, Optisc, p. 179.) But the latter translation has less 
foundation. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



67 



Lauds ; for Prime, Tierce, Sext and Nones, — for 
each of these, seven ; for Vespers, however, 
twelve, for Compline seven ; and let them pray 
for the dead. 

And let them fast from the feast of All Saints 
until the Nativity of the Lord. But the holy 
Lent which begins from Epiphany and continues 
for forty days, which the Lord has consecrated 
by His holy fast, 1 — may those who keep it volun- 
tarily be blessed by the Lord and those who do 
not wish may not be constrained. But they 
must fast during the other one until the Resur- 
rection of the Lord. At other times, however, 
they shall not be obliged to fast, except on 
Fridays. But in time of manifest necessity 
the brothers shall not be bound to corporal 
fasting. 

I indeed counsel, warn, and exhort my broth- 
ers in the Lord Jesus Christ that when they go 
through the world they be not litigious nor con- 
tend in words, 2 nor judge others ; but that they 
be gentle, peaceful, and modest, meek and 
humble, speaking honestly to all as is fitting. 
And they must not ride on horseback unless 
compelled by manifest necessity or infirmity. 
Into whatsoever house they may enter let them 
first say : Peace be to this house ! And, accord- 
ing to the holy Gospel, it is lawful to eat of all 
foods which are set before them. 8 

1 See Matt. 4 : 2. 

2 See Tit. 3 : 2 and II Tim. 2 : 14. 

3 See Luke 10 : 5 and 8. 



6S 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



4. — That the Brothers must not receive money. 

I strictly enjoin on all the brothers that in no 
wise they receive coins or money, either them- 
selves or through an interposed person. Never- 
theless, for the necessities of the sick and for 
clothing the other brothers, let the ministers and 
custodes alone take watchful care through 
spiritual friends, according to places and times 
and cold climates, as they shall see expedient in 
the necessity, saving always that, as has been 
said, they shall not receive coins or money. 

5. — Of the manner of working. 

Let those brothers to whom the Lord has 
given the grace of working labor faithfully and 
devoutly, so that in banishing idleness, the 
enemy of the soul, they do not extinguish the 
spirit of holy prayer and devotion, to which all 
temporal things must be subservient. They may, 
however, receive as the reward of their labor, 
the things needful for the body for themselves 
and their brothers, with the exception of coins 
or money, and that humbly, as befits the servants 
of God and the followers of most holy poverty 

6. — That the Brothers shall appropriate nothing 
to themselves : and of seeking Alms and 
of the Sick Brothers. 

The brothers shall appropriate nothing to 
themselves, neither a house nor place nor any- 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



69 



thing. And as pilgrims and strangers 1 in this 
world, serving the Lord in poverty and humility, 
let them go confidently in quest of alms, nor 
ought they to be ashamed, because the Lord 
made Himself poor for us in this world. This, 
my dearest brothers, is the height of the most 
sublime poverty which has made you heirs and 
kings of the kingdom of heaven : poor in goods, 
but exalted in virtue. Let that be your portion, 
for it leads to the land of the living ; 2 cleaving to 
it unreservedly, my best beloved brothers, for 
the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, never desire 
to possess anything else under heaven. 

And wheresoever the brothers are and may 
find themselves, let them mutually show among 
themselves that they are of one household. And 
let one make known his needs with confidence 
to the other, for, if a mother nourishes and loves 
her carnal son, how much more earnestly ought 
one to love and nourish his spiritual brother ! 
And if any of them should fall into illness, the 
other brothers must serve him as they would 
wish to be served themselves. 

7. — Of the Penance to be imposed on Brothers 
who sin. 

If any of the brothers, at the instigation of 
the enemy, sin mortally by those sins for which 
it has been ordained among the brothers that 

1 See I Peter 2 : 11. 

2 See Ps. 141 : 6. It was this Psalm that St. Francis recited 
at the hour of death. 



7o 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



recourse should be had to the provincial minis- 
ters alone, the aforesaid brothers are bound to 
have recourse to them as soon as possible, with- 
out delay. But let the ministers themselves, if 
they are priests, impose penance on them with 
mercy ; if however they are not priests, let them 
have it imposed by other priests of the Order, 
as it may seem to them most expedient, accord- 
ing to God. And they must beware lest they 
be angry or troubled on account of the sins of 
others, because anger and trouble impede charity 
in themselves and in others. 

8. — Of the Election of the Minister General of 
this Brotherhood, and of the WJiitsun 
Chapter. 

All the brothers are bound always to have 
one of the brothers of this religion as minister 
general and servant of the whole brotherhood, 
and they are strictly bound to obey him. At his 
death the election of a successor must be made 
by the provincial ministers and custodes in 
the Whitsun Chapter, in which the provincial 
ministers are always bound to convene at the 
same time, wheresoever it may be appointed by 
the minister general, and that once in three 
years or at a longer or shorter interval as may 
be ordained by the said minister. And if at 
any time it should be apparent to the whole of 
the provincial ministers that the aforesaid minis- 
ter general is not sufficient for the service and 
the common welfare of the brothers, let the 



WRITINGS OF ST FRANCIS. 



71 



aforesaid ministers, to whom the election has 
been committed, be bound to elect for them- 
selves another as custos in the name of the Lord. 
But after the Whitsun Chapter the ministers 
and custodes may each, if they wish and it seem 
expedient to them, convoke their brothers to a 
chapter in their custodies once in the same 
year. 

9. —Of Preachers. 

The brothers must not preach in the diocese 
of any bishop when their doing so may be 
opposed by him. And let no one of the brothers 
dare to preach in any way to the people, unless 
he has been examined and approved by the 
minister general of this brotherhood, and the 
office of preaching conceded to him by the latter. 
I also warn and exhort the same brothers that 
in the preaching they do their words be fire-tried 
and pure 1 for the utility and edification of the 
people, announcing to them vices and virtues, 
punishment and glory, with brevity of speech 
because the Lord made His word short upon 
earth. 2 

10. — Of the Admonition and Correction of 
the Brothers. 

Those brothers who are ministers and ser- 
vants of the other brothers, shall visit and ad- 
monish their brothers, and shall humbly and 
charitably correct them, not commanding them 

1 See Ps. 11 : 7 and 17 : 31. 2 See Rom. 9 : 28. 



72 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



anything against their souls and our Rule. The 
brothers however who are subject must remem- 
ber that, for God, they have renounced their 
own will. Wherefore I order them strictly to 
obey their ministers in all things which they 
have promised the Lord to observe and are not 
against their souls and our Rule. And whereso- 
ever there are brothers who see and know that 
they are not able to observe the rule spiritually, 
they ought to and can recur to their ministers. 
And let the ministers receive them charitably 
and kindly and show so great familiarity toward 
them that they [the culprits] may speak and act 
with them as masters with their servants, for 
thus it ought to be, since the ministers are the 
servants of all the brothers. 

I also warn and exhort the brothers in the 
Lord Jesus Christ that they beware of all pride, 
vainglory, envy, covetousness, 1 the cares and 
solicitudes of this world, of detraction and 
murmuring. Let not those who are ignorant of 
letters care to learn letters, but let them con- 
sider that, beyond all, they should desire to 
possess the spirit of the Lord and His holy 
operation, to pray always to Him with a pure 
heart and to have humility, patience in perse- 
cution and in infirmity and to love those who 
persecute, reprove, and accuse us, because the 
Lord has said : " Love your enemies . . . and 
pray for them that persecute and calumniate 
you." 2 "Blessed are they that suffer perse- 

1 See Luke 12 : 15. - Matt. 5 : 44- 



WRITINGS OF ST FRANCIS. 



73 



cution for justice' sake, for theirs is the king- 
dom of heaven." 1 " But he that shall per- 
severe to the end, he shall be saved." 2 

1 1. — That the Brothers must not enter the Monas- 

teries of Nuns. 

I strictly command all the brothers not to 
have suspicious intimacy, or conferences with 
women, and let none enter the monasteries of 
nuns except those to whom special permission 
has been granted by the Apostolic See. And 
let them not be godfathers of men or women, 
that 3 scandal may not arise on this account 
among the brothers or concerning the brothers. 

12. — Of those who go among the Saracens and 

other Infidels. 

Let all of the brothers who by divine inspira- 
tion desire to go amongst the Saracens or other 
infidels, ask leave therefor from their provincial 
ministers. But the ministers must give permis- 
sion to go to none except to those whom they 
see are fitted to be sent. 

Moreover, I enjoin on the ministers, by obedi- 
ence, that they ask of the Lord Pope one of the 
Cardinals of the holy Roman Church to be 
governor, protector, and corrector of this 

1 Matt. 5 : 10. 2 Matt. 10 : 22. 

3 This is comformable to the original bull, which reads nec 
hac occasione; but most of the printed texts give ne, " lest 
scandal arise," instead of nec. 



74 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



brotherhood, so that being always subject and 
submissive at the feet of the same holy Church, 
grounded in the Catholic faith, 1 we may observe 
poverty and humility and the holy Gospel of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, which we have firmly 
promised. 



i See Col. i : 23. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



75 



V. 



Fragments from the Rule of the Sisters of 



f the 1 ' many writings ' ' 1 left by St. Francis to the 



v-^ Poor Ladies at St. Damian's, only two fragments 
are known to exist, and these have been preserved to 
us through St. Clare herself, in so far as she incorpo- 
rated them in the sixth chapter of her Rule. We have 
it on the authority of Pope Gregory IX that St. Francis 
wrote for St. Clare and her first companions a formula 
vitae, or ' ' little rule," at the beginning of their reli- 
gious life. 2 But it was this same Pope Gregory IX, 
then known as Cardinal Ugolino, who about 12 19 
composed a Rule for the Poor Ladies, which was ac- 
cepted by St. Francis and confirmed by Honorius III. 3 
This Rule, as the Pontiff himself declares, was 
solemnly professed by Clare and her Sisters and ob- 
served by them for many years in a praiseworthy 
manner. 4 Pope Innocent IV bears witness to the 
same effect. Writing to Blessed Agnes, Princess of 
Bohemia (who had founded a house of the Second 
Order at Prague), of this Rule, written by Cardinal 

1 " Plura scripta tradidit nobis," Test. B Clarae. See 
Seraphicae Legisiationis textus originates, p. 276. 

2 "When Clare," he says, "and some other devout women 
in the Lord chose to serve under the same observance of re- 
ligion, Blessed Francis gave them a little rule of life " (formit- 
lam vitae tradidit). See the bull Angelis gaudium of May 11, 
1238 {Buttar. Franc, t. I, p. 242). 

* See Buttar., I, 11 and 13 : the letters Prudentibus Virgini- 
bus: Ann. Min. I, 312: Gubernatis, Orb. Seraph. II, 603 : also 
Buttar. I, 4, n. (a). The Rule may be found in the bull Cum 
omnis vera of Gregory IX, of May 24, 1239. See Buttar., t. 
I, p. 263. 

4 See Buttar., t. I, p. 242. 



St. Clare. 




76 



WRITINGS 01 ST. FRANCIS. 



Ugolino, he says : " The Sisters of the Monastery of 
St. Damian and all others of your Order have laud- 
ably observed it from the time of its profession until 
now." 1 These words were written on November 
13, 1243. 

In view of such testimony it is obviously a mistake 
to assert, as Wadding and some other writers do, 
that St. Clare abandoned this Rule in 1224, and pro- 
fessed another one written by St. Francis. It is also 
erroneous to suppose that St. Francis ever wrote a 
Rule for the Poor Ladies. 2 The one written about 
1 219, by Cardinal Ugolino, was recast by St. Clare 
herself toward the close of her life, and made to con- 
form as far as possible to the Second Rule written 
by St. Francis for the Friars Minor. The Rule of the 
Poor Ladies, thus recast by St. Clare in a new form, 
was confirmed by Innocent IV, August 9, 1253, just 
two days before the death of the holy abbess. 3 

In the sixth chapter of this Rule, St. Clare de- 
scribes the circumstances under which the two frag- 
ments of St. Francis' writings here given were 
composed. 11 After the Most High Heavenly Father 
deigned by His grace to enlighten my heart," St. 
Clare tells us, " to do penance after the example and 
teaching of our most blessed father, St. Francis, a 
little while after his own conversion, I, together with 

1 See Buttar., t. I, p. 315. 

- On the origin of the Second Order and the early Rule, see 
Lemmens : " Die Anfànge des Clarissenordens " in the 
Ròmische Quartalschrift, t. XVI, 1902, pp. 93-124, which is in 
the nature of a rejoinder to Dr. Lempp's article with the same 
title, published in Brieger's Zeitschrift fur Kirclienge- 
schichte, XIII, 181-245. 

3 This Rule is contained in the bull Solet annuere, of Inno- 
cent IV. See Seraphicae Lcgislationis text us originates, 
page 49 seq. See also Buttar., I, 167; Ann. Min., Ill, 287. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



77 



my sisters, voluntarily promised him obedience. But, 
seeing that we feared no poverty, toil, sorrow, abase- 
ment and contempt of the world, nay rather that we 
held them in great delight, the blessed father, moved 
by compassion, wrote us a rule of life 1 in this form 
. . . . " Then follows the first of the two frag- 
ments given below. Further on in the same chapter 
of her Rule, the holy abbess adds : 1 ' To the end that 
we and also those who might come after us should 
never fall away from the most holy poverty which we 
had undertaken, he again wrote to us shortly before 
his death 2 his last wish, saying . . . ." 3 Then 
follows the second of the two fragments here given. 

Both these pieces, which Wadding took for letters 4 
addressed to St. Clare, are here translated according 
to the text of the Rule contained in the original bull 
of Innocent IV. 5 They are as follows : 

I. FORM OF LIFE WHICH ST. FRANCIS WROTE FOR 
ST. CLARE. 6 

Since, by divine inspiration, you have made 
yourselves daughters and handmaids of the Most 

1 Forma vivendi. See Seraph. Legislate p. 62. 

2 The biographers place the writing of this fragment in the 
autumn of 1220, after St. Francis returned from the East. 

3 See Seraph. Legislate p. 63. 

4 They are numbered IV and V among the Epistolae in his 
edition of the Opuscula. 

5 This bull, which had been lost for several centuries, was 
brought to light early in 1893, after a protracted search in 
different countries; it was found wrapped within an old mantle 
of Saint Clare, preserved in the Monastery of Santa Chiara, 
at Assisi. See Seraph. Legislate pp. 2, seq. See also G. 
Cozza- Luzi : Un autografo di Innocenzo IV e Memorie di 
S. Chiara, ed. 2da., Rome, 1895. 

6 Some critics regard this fragment as a promise or engage- 
ment accompanying the formula vitae or as the beginning of 



73 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



High Sovereign King, the Heavenly Father, and 
have espoused yourselves to the Holy Ghost, 
choosing to live according to the perfection of 
the holy Gospel, I will, and I promise to have al- 
ways, by myself and my brothers, a diligent care 
and special solicitude for you, as for them. 1 

2. LAST WISH WHICH ST. FRANCIS WROTE TO 
ST. CLARE. 

I, little brother Francis, wish to follow the 
life and poverty of Jesus Christ our Most High 
Lord and of His Most Holy Mother and to per- 
severe therein until the end. And I beseech 
you all, my ladies, and counsel you, to live al- 
ways in this most holy life and poverty. And 
watch yourselves well that you in no wise depart 
from it through the teaching or advice of any 
one. 

the formula itself, and believe that the text of the latter, now 
lost, was also inserted originally in the sixth chapter of St. 
Clare's Rule. Be this as it may, it is certain that this chapter 
has been completely changed in several editions. In the 
vernacular versions of it, based on Wadding, the two frag- 
ments here given do not appear at all. See Fr. Van Ortroy, 
S.J., in Anal. Boll., t. xxiv, fase, hi, p. 412. 
1 See 2 Cel. 3, 132. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



79 



VI. 

Testament of the Holy Father St. Francis. 

The opuscule which St. Francis called his Testament 
is a precious document of the highest authority. 
Renan forsooth denied its authenticity, but rashly, for, 
as M. Sabatier rightly remarks, 1 this is not to be 
questioned. 2 The Testament corresponds through- 
out with the other writings of St. Francis, and more- 
over reveals his character and spirit in every line. 
But we are not reduced to internal proofs for its 
genuinity. All the historians, including Thomas of 
Celano, 3 and St. Bonaventure,* mention it, 5 while 
Gregory IX cites it textually in his bull Quo elongati 
of September 28, 1230. We know from this bull that 
the Saint's Testament was published a few days only 
before his death. 6 Everything seems to point to its 
having been written at the hermitage of the Celle 
near Cortona, during St. Francis' last visit there 
(summer of 1226), though some think it was dictated 
to Angelo Tancredi, one of the Three Companions, 
in the little hut nearest the Portiuncula which served 
as an infirmary and in which St. Francis died. 

According to M. Sabatier, St. Francis wrote more 
than one testament. Indeed, the French critic goes 
so far as to say that at the end of each of his crises 
the Saint made his will anew, 7 and in support of this 
assertion cites Chapter 87 of his own edition of the 

1 Sabatier : Vie de S. Francois ; Étude des Sources. 

2 See also Goetz, /. e, t. XXII, pp. 372 seq. 

3 See 1 Cel. 17; 2 Cel. 3, 99. 4 See Bonav., Leg. Maj., Ill, 2. 
* It is also expressly cited in the Leg. Ill So c. 11 and 29. 

6 " Circa ultimum vitae suae," etc. See Bullarium Franc, 
t. I, p. 68. 

7 "À la fin de chacune de ces crises, il faisait de nouveau 



8o WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 

Speculum Perfectionis, in which we read that during 
an illness (seemingly in April, 1226), St. Francis 
caused Brother Benedict of Prato to write down a 
blessing and some words of advice "in token of 
memory and benediction and testament." But surely 
from this narration we may not deduce the general 
proposition that St. Francis wrote "several testa- 
ments." The early Legends are silent except as to 
the one Testament here given, and all the passages 
which different writers quote <4 from the Testament " 
may be fòund in this one, — if we except two passages 
in M. Sabatier's edition of the Speculum Perfectionis. 
But it is not difficult to see that in both these places 
the Speculum is in error. In the ninth chapter it re- 
peats incorrectly what Brother Leo elsewhere 1 relates, 
and in the fifty-fifth chapter the compiler of the 
Speculum is still more astray, as a comparison of this 
chapter with chapter twenty-seventh of Father Lem- 
me ns' edition of the Speculum clearly indicates. Both 
editions of the Speculum tell in almost the same words 
of St. Francis' love for the Church of the Portiuncula. 
M. Sabatier's edition says : "At his death he caused 
it to be written in the Testament that all the brothers 
should do likewise;" whereas Father Lemmens' 
edition reads as follows : " Toward his death he be- 
queathed this Church to the brothers as a testa- 
ment." 2 

The Testament is to be found among St. Francis' 
works in twelve of the codices above described, 3 to 

son testament." Speculum Per/, (ed. Sabatier), p. xxxiii, 
note 2. See also Speculum (ed. Lemmens), No. 30. 

1 See 5. Francisci Intentio regulae, nn. 14 and 15, in the 
Documenta Antiqua Franciscana, P. I, p. 97. 

2 See Documenta Antiqua Francescana, P. II, p. 60. 
8 See page 3. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 8 1 



wit, those at Assisi, 1 Berlin, Florence (Ognissanti 
MSS.), St. Floriano, Liegnitz, Paris (Nat. lib. and 
Mazarin MSS. 989), Prague and Rome (St. Antony's 
and both Vatican MSS.), as well as in a fifteenth 
century MS. at the Hague (Municip. lib. cod. K. 54, 
fol. 3 v). The text here translated is that of the Assisi 
codex collated with those of Ognissanti, Florence, 
and St. Antony's, Rome, and with the versions of the 
Testament contained in the Monumenta (fol. 274 v) 
and Firmamento, 1 (fol. 16 v). Here begins the : 

TESTAMENT OF THE HOLY FATHER ST. FRANCIS. 

The Lord gave to me, Brother Francis, thus 
to begin to do penance ; for when I was in sin 
it seemed to me very bitter to see lepers, and 
the Lord Himself led me amongst them and I 
showed mercy to them. 3 And when I left them, 
that which had seemed to me bitter was changed 
for me into sweetness of body and soul. And 
afterwards I remained a little and I left the 
world. And the Lord gave me so much 4 faith 

1 The text of the Testament given by M. Sabatier in his 
edition of the Speculum Per/, is that of this Assisi MS. 

2 It may also be found in the Speculimi Minorum (Tract. 
Ill, 8 r) and in the Annates of Wadding (ad an. 1226, 35). 

3 See 1 Cel. 17, where this passage of the Testament is 
quoted. See also Bonav. Leg. Ikfaj., II, 6; and Leg. Ill So c. 
11. Some texts instead of "feci misericordiam cum Mis" 
give "feci vioram cum Mis" : "I made a sojourn with 
them." See Misceli. Franc, III (1888), p. 70. It is interesting 
to note here how St Francis on the eve of his death, casting 
a backward glance over the ways by which he had been led, 
dwells on this incident which had marked a new era in his 
life. 

4 Cod. As. reads " talein fidem" "such faith." 



82 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



in churches that I would simply pray and say 
thus : u We adore Thee Lord Jesus Christ here 1 
and in all Thy churches which are in the whole 
world, and we bless Thee because by Thy holy 
cross Thou hast redeemed the world." 

After that the Lord gave me, and gives me, 
so much faith in priests who live according to 
the form of the holy Roman Church, on account 
of their order, 2 that if they should persecute 
me, I would have recourse to them. And if I 
had as much wisdom as Solomon had, and if I 
should find poor priests of this world, 3 I would 
not preach against their will in the parishes in 
which they live. And I desire to fear, love, and 
honor them and all others as my masters ; and I 
do not wish to consider sin in them, for in them 
I see the Son of God and they are my masters. 
And I do this because in this world, I see noth- 
ing corporally of the most high Son of God 
Himself except His most holy Body and Blood, 
which they receive and they alone administer to 
others. And I will that these most holy mys- 
teries be honored and revered above all things 
and that they be placed in precious places. 
Wheresoever I find His most holy Names and 
written words in unseemly places, I wish to 
collect them, and I ask that they may be col- 
lected and put in a becoming place. And we 

1 Cod. As. and O. omit " here." (See i Cel. 45 ; and Bonav. 
Leg. Maj. 43, where this prayer may be found.) Cod. An. 
Firm. andWadd. insert "here." 

2 Order, i. e., sacerdotal character. 

3 Priests of the world, i. e., secular priests. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



83 



ought to honor and venerate all theologians and 
those who minister to us the most holy Divine 
Words as those who minister to us spirit and 
life. 1 

And when the Lord gave me some brothers, 
no one showed me what I ought to do, but the 
Most High Himself revealed to me that I should 
live according to the form of the holy Gospel. 2 
And I caused it to be written in few words and 
simply, and the Lord Pope confirmed it for me. 
And those who came to take this life upon them- 
selves gave to the poor all that they might have 
and they 8 were content with one tunic, patched 
within and without, by those who wished, 4 with 
a cord and breeches, and we wished for no more. 

We clerics said the Office like other clerics ; 
the laics said the Paternoster, and we remained 
in the churches 6 willingly enough. And we 
were simple and subject to all. And I worked 
with my hands and I wish to work and I wish 
firmly that all the other brothers should work at 
some labor which is compatible with honesty. 
Let those who know not [how to work] learn, 
not through desire to receive the price of labor 
but for the sake of example and to repel idleness. 
And when the price of labor is not given to us, 

1 See 2 Cel. 3, 99, where this passage of the Testament is 
quoted ; see also Bonav. Epis. de tribus quaestionibus in 
which it is also referred to. {Opera Omnia, t. VIII, p. 335.) 

2 See Leg. Ill So c. 29, for reference to this passage. 

3 Cod. O. reads : eramus " we were content." 

4 Cod. As. omits qui volebant, "by those who wished." 

5 Firm, and Wadd. add: "poor and neglected churches." 



§4 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



let us have recourse to the table of the Lord, 
begging alms from door to door. 

The Lord revealed to me this salutation, that 
we should say : "The Lord give thee peace/' 1 
Let the brothers take care not to receive on any 
account churches, poor dwelling-places, and all 
other things 2 that are constructed for them, 
unless they are as is becoming the holy poverty 
which we have promised in the Rule, always 
dwelling there as strangers and pilgrims. 3 

I strictly enjoin by obedience 4 on all the 
brothers that, wherever they may be, they should 
not dare, either themselves or by means of some 
interposed person, 5 to ask any letter in the 
Roman curia either for a church 6 or for any 
other place, nor under pretext of preaching, nor 
on account of their bodily persecution ; but, 
wherever they are not received let them flee to 
another land to do penance, with the blessing 
of God. And I wish to obey the minister 
general of this brotherhood strictly and the 
guardian whom it may please him to give me. 
And I wish to be so captive in his hands that I 
cannot go or act beyond his obedience and his 
will because he is my master. And although I 

1 See Bonav. Leg. Maj., Ill, 2. 

2 Cod. As. omits " other things," and O. omits " all other 
things." 

3 See Documenta antiqua Fran riscatta, P. I, page 98, n. 15, 
where this passage is cited among the Verba quae scripsit 
Frater Leo. 

4 Cod. O. omits u by obedience." 
6 Cod. An. omits this clause. 

Cod. O. omits " either for a church." 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



35 



am simple and infirm, I desire withal always to 
have a cleric who will perform the office with 
me as it is contained in the Rule. 

And let all the other brothers be bound to 
obey their guardian and to perform the office 
according to the Rule. And those who may be 
found not performing the office according to the 
Rule and wishing to change it in some way, or 
who are not Catholics, let all the brothers wher- 
ever they may be, if they find one of these, be 
bound by obedience to present him to the custos 
who is nearest to the place where they have 
found him. And the custos shall be strictly 
bound, by obedience, to guard him strongly day 
and night as a prisoner so that he cannot be 
snatched from his hands until he shall person- 
ally place him in the hands of his minister. And 
the minister shall be firmly bound by obedience 
to send him by such brothers as shall watch him 
day and night like a prisoner until they shall 
present him to the Lord of Ostia, who is master 
protector, and corrector of this brotherhood. 1 

And let not the brothers say : This is another 
Rule ; for this is a remembrance, a warning, and 
an exhortation and my Testament which I, little 
Brother Francis, make for you, my blessed 
brothers, in order that we may observe in a more 
Catholic way the Rule which we have promised 
to the Lord. And let the minister general and 
all the other ministers and custodes be bound by 

1 Cardinal Ugolino, afterward Gregory IX, was then Bishop 
of Ostia, and Protector of the Order. 



So 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



obedience not to add to these words or to take 
from them. And let them always have this 
writing with them beside the Rule. And in all 
the Chapters they hold, when they read the Rule 
let them read these words also. And I strictly 
enjoin on all my brothers, clerics and laics, by 
obedience, not to put glosses on the Rule or on 
these words saying : Thus they ought to be 
understood ; but as the Lord has given me to 
speak and to write the Rule and these words 
simply and purely, so shall you understand them 
simply and purely 1 and with holy operation ob- 
serve them until the end. 

And whoever shall observe these things 2 may 
he be filled in heaven with the blessing of the Most 
High Father and may he be filled on earth with 
blessing of His Beloved Son together with the 
Holy Ghost, the Paraclete, and all the Powers 
of heaven and all the saints. And I, Brother 
Francis, your little one and servant, in so far as 
I am able, I confirm to you within and without 
this most holy blessing. 3 Amen. 4 

1 Cod. As. and for ''purely" read "without gloss ;" 
Firm, and Wadd. add " without gloss." 

2 Cod. An. and O. read " this " for " these things." 

s Cod. O. adds " to him who caused these words to be writ- 
ten, be all honor, all praise and glory forever and ever." 

4 See i Cel. 38, for the blessing given by St. Francis on his 
deathbed to Elias and the Order. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



S7 



VII. 



Of Living Religiously in a Hermitage. 
7 e learn from St. Bonaventure 1 and the Fioretti' 1 



V V that as companions began to flock to St. Francis, 
the man of God hesitated for a while between adopt- 
ing a life of prayer or of preaching. Although, as we 
know, he finally decided in favor of the apostolate, 
yet withal he never altogether separated the contem- 
plative from the active life. A precious witness to this 
fact is found in the Regulation for the brothers during 
their sojourn in hermitages with which we are now 
concerned. To understand the scope of this peculiar 
piece of legislation, it must be borne in mind that at 
the beginning of the Franciscan movement the friars 
had no settled domicile. 3 The wide world was their 
cloister. 4 Possessing nothing they wandered about 
like children careless of the day, teaching or preach- 
ing, passing the night in hay-lofts or under church 

1 See Bonav. Leg. Maj., XII, i, where the Saint is represented 
as discoursing on the relative merits and advantages of the 
active and contemplative life. Wadding gives this discourse 
among the Monastic Conferences he attributes to St. Francis. 
See Opuscula, Coll. XIV, p. 318. 

2 See Floretum S. Franciscì, ed. Sabatier, cap. 16, p. 60. This 
chapter, which is one of the most interesting from a critical 
point of view, represents St. Francis as consulting St. Clare 
and Brother Sylvester on the subject of his doubt. 

3 See First Rule, chap, vii (above, p. 40) ; also Speculum 
Perf.y ed. Sabatier, pp. 25-26. 

* As is most poetically described by the author of the 
Sacrum Commercium. Show me your cloister, asks the Lady 
Poverty of the friars. And they, leading her to the summit 
of a hill, showed her the wide world, saying : This is our 
cloister, O Lady Poverty. (See The Lady Poverty, by M. 
Carmichael, p. 128.) 




88 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



porches, in lazarettos, or deserted huts and grottoes. 1 
The need of having some kind of permanent retreat 
where they might retire at times to pray or rest, re- 
sulted in the institution of hermitages. These little 
solitudes, to which Francis loved to withdraw, may 
be found wherever the Saint went. The Celle near 
Cortona, the Carceri on Mount Subasio, Greccio in 
the valley of Rieti, and the more solitary hermitages, 
like Lo Speco, form, as some one has said, a series 
of documents, about St. Francis' life, quite as im- 
portant as the written ones. And not a little of his 
spirit still lingers in such of these hermitages as yet 
remain. It was for the government of small loci 2 
like these that the present special little Rule was 
written. Its attribution to St. Francis has not been 
questioned. The quaint simplicity of its conception 
proclaims its authenticity, and in none of the codices 
does it bear the name of any other author than St. 
Francis. It may have been written about 12 17 ; its 
composition certainly belongs to the first decade of 
the Order. 

In the ancient collections of St. Francis' writings 
found in the codices at Florence (Ognissanti), Fo- 
ligno, Rome (St. Isidore's MS. Y25 and the Vatican 
MS. 7650), as well as in copies of the compilation 
which begins Fac secundum exemplar, this Instruc- 
tion is found at the end of the Admonitions. But in 
the greater number of the early codices the Admoni- 
tions close as in the present translation, and the 

1 See 1 Cel. 1, 17; and Leg. Ill So c. 55. Such grottoes may 
still be seen in St. Francis' country ; they serve as a shelter 
for beggars and gypsies. 

■ St. Francis habitually uses the word locus or place to 
designate the habitations of the friars (see above, Rule II, 
chap, vi, p. 68). 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



89 



opuscule on hermitages is preferably separated from 
them, as it is in the Assisian codex and that of St. 
Isidore's, Rome (MS. V73). The text which follows is 
based on the Assisi MS., which has been collated 
with that of Ognissanti and those at St. Isidore's and 
with the version of this Regulation given by Barthol- 
omew of Pisa in his Conformities . l Here is the text : 

OF LIVING RELIGIOUSLY IN A HERMITAGE. 

Let those who wish to live religiously in her- 
mitages, be three brothers or four at most. Let 
two of them be mothers and have two sons, or 
at least one. Let the two former lead the life 
of Martha and the other two the life of Mary 
Magdalene. 2 

Let those who lead the life of Mary have one 
cloister 3 and each his own place, so that they 
may not live or sleep together. And let them 
always say Compline of the day toward sunset, 4 
and let them be careful to keep silence and to say 
their Hours and to rise for Matins, and let them 

1 See "Franciscus in admonitionibus suis " (fruct. xii, 
P. 11, cap. 30). It was from this text that Wadding took the 
Regulation for his edition of the Opuscula in which it figures 
under the heading Collationes Monasticae III. 

2 The figure which presents Mary and Martha as types of 
the contemplative and active life was already a familiar one. 
See Gregor., VI Moral., c. 37, n. 61 : " Quid per Mariam, 
quae verba Domini residens audiebat, nisi contemplativa vita 
exprimitur ? Quid per Martham exterioribus obsequiis occu 
patam nisi activa vita signatur?" 

3 Cod. As. after cloister reads: "in which each one shall 
have his own cell." 

4 Cod. As. reads : " immediately after sunset." 



9 o 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



seek first " the kingdom of God and His justice." 1 
And let them say Prime and Tierce at the proper 
time, and, after the hour of Tierce, they may 
break silence and may speak and, when it is 
pleasing to them, they may go to their mothers 
and may ask an alms from them for the love of 
the Lord God, like little poor ones. 2 And after 
that, let them say Sext and Nones and Vespers 
at the appointed time. 

And they must not allow any 3 person to enter 
into the cloister where they live, or let them eat 
there. Let those brothers who are mothers 
endeavor to keep apart from every person and, 
by the obedience of their custos, let them guard 
their sons from every person, so that no one may 
speak with them. And let these sons not speak 
with any person except with their mothers and 
with their custos, when it shall please him to 
visit them with the blessing of God. 4 But the 
sons must sometimes in turn assume the office . 
of mothers, for a time, according as it may seem 
to them to dispose. Let them strive to observe 
all the above diligently and earnestly. 5 

1 Luke 12 : 31. 

2 This is the reading of the Cod. As. and Is.; other texts 
read the " poorest beggars." 

3 Cod. O. adds : " any woman or person whatsoever." 

4 The text in Cod. As. ends here. 

5 See 2 Cel. £3, 113. 




PART IL 



SIX LETTERS OF ST. FRANCIS 



The Letters of St. Francis. 




O' 



tFthe seventeen letters attributed 
to St. Francis in Wadding's 
edition of the Opuscula, five cannot 
be admitted as genuine, at least in 
the form given in that work, and 
the rest need, with two exceptions, 
to be reclassified. 
In the first category, we must place the 
familiar letter in which St. Francis gives 
St. Antony permission to teach theology 
(Epistle III, in Wadding's edition), and which has 
been excluded by the Quaracchi editors as doubtful 
on the ground that it exists in too many different 
forms. 1 The letters to Brother Elias, to the Pro- 
vincial Ministers, and to the Custodes (Epistles 
VII, IX, and XIV, in Wadding's edition), were 
translated by Wadding into Latin from a Spanish 
text, 2 and have not come down to us in their original 
form. Hence they do not figure in the Quaracchi edi- 
tion. Neither does the letter (Epis. XVII, in Wad- 
ding's edition) to " Brother" Giacoma dei Settisoli, 
which is clearly an extract from Chapter XVIII of the 
Actus B. Francìsci et Sociorum ejus? Following the 

1 On this letter see Appendix. 

2 Wadding drew on the Spanish text of Rebolledo ( Chron y 
P. I, 1. II, c. xxvii) and himself appears to have had mis- 
givings, at least as regards the authenticity of Epistle VII. 

3 See Actus B. Francisci, etc., ed. Sabatier, p. 63. M. 
Sabatier attributes the authorship of this compilation (which 
contains, as is now known, among other matters, the original 
Latin text of the traditional Fioretti) to Fra Ugolino di Monte 
Giorgio, and believes its date to be between 1280 and 1320. 
It is, however, from Thomas of Celano that we know St. 



94 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



Quaracchi editors, I have excluded these five letters 
from the present work. 

As regards the reclassification of the other letters 
attributed to St. Francis by Wadding, Epistles IV, 
V, and XIII in his edition are without doubt genuine 
writings of St. Francis, but they are not letters ; at 
least, the oldest MSS. do not give them in epistolary 
form. The two former are fragments of a 1 ' rule ot 
life " and a "last wish," written by St. Francis for St. 
Clare ; No. XIII is an Instruction on the Blessed 
Sacrament. All three are given elsewhere in the 
present volume in their proper form. 1 For the rest, 
the Epistles numbered I and II by Wadding form the 
text of one and the same letter ' 4 To all the Faithful ;' ' 
those numbered VI and VIII seem to be a summary 
of the genuine letter "To a Minister," and No. 
X is part of the letter " To the General Chapter" 
also given below, while Epistles XI and XII form but 
one letter in the oldest codices and belong to this 
same letter to the General Chapter. The only two 
letters, then, of St. Francis which, both as regards 
matter and form, may be accepted as Wadding gives 
them, are numbers VIII and XV, addressed to the 

Francis to have written a letter to the Lady Giacoma (See Tr. 
de Miraculis in Anal. Bo Hand., t. xviii). See also Spec. 
Per/, (ed. Sabatier), c. XII, for reference to this letter. The 
narrative of Celano renders the text of the letter given in the 
Actus very doubtful. The fact that the expression " St. Mary 
of the Angels '' is used in it to designate the Portiuncula is in 
itself sufficient to militate against its authenticity. Neither 
St. Francis nor his companions ever employed this term ; 
they invariably said "St. Mary of the Portiuncula/' Any 
document, therefore, containing the former expression be- 
speaks a fourteenth century origin at earliest. See Frère 
Jacqueline : Recherches Historiques, by Fr. Edouard d'Alen- 
con, Paris, 1899. 

1 See above, pp. 23, 77, 78. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



95 



Rulers and to Brother Leo respectively. In a word, 
as a result of this process of elimination and reclassi- 
fication, only five of the seventeen letters ascribed to 
St. Francis by Wadding remain to us, namely : — 

1. Letter to all the Faithful (Ep. I and II of Wad- 
ding). 

2. Letter to the General Chapter (Ep. X, XI, and 
XII of Wadding). 

3. Letter to a Minister (Ep. VI and VIII of Wad- 
ding). 

4. Letter to the Rulers (Ep. XV of Wadding). 

5. Letter to Brother Leo (Ep. XVI of Wadding). 
To these five letters, the Quaracchi editors have 

added the undoubtedly authentic letter of St. Francis 
to the Custodes, 1 making six in all. Such are the six 
letters which I have here rendered into English. Let 
us now consider each of them in order. 

1 The letter which Wadding translated from the Spanish, 
under this title and numbered XIV, appears to have been an 
incomplete version of the letter here given in full. 



9 6 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



I. 



Letter to all the Faithful. 
he authenticity of this letter has never been called 



* into question. The text itself and the consensus 
of codices alike bespeak its genuineness. Its inspira- 
tion is, as the Quaracchi editors have pointed out, 
kindred to that of St. Francis' other writings. More- 
over, many of the sentiments contained in this letter, 
written in great part in the words of the Gospel, are 
expressed by the Saint in almost the self-same lan- 
guage in the Rules and elsewhere. 1 

In the spring of 121 5, St. Francis suffered again 
from an attack of fever similar to that which had pros- 
trated him in Spain. It was then, his biographers 
tell us, 2 that the Saint, unable as he was to preach, 
was moved by the zeal that devoured him, to put his 
message into writing. As a result we have this the 
first and longest of his letters, addressed to all the 
Faithful, — a precious example of his far-reaching soli- 
citude and all embracing sympathy. There is a sim- 
plicity in the superscription and opening words of 
this letter characteristic of the Middle Ages. Then 
was the time when men believed that if they had a 
good idea or a deep feeling on any subject, the world 
at large had but to learn of this idea or feeling and it 
would immediately adopt it. It was thus that some 
bishops of the south of France, having established 

1 Compare for example the passage on p. 101, beginning 
" Let us therefore love God," etc., with Chapter XXII of the 
First Rule (p. 58) ; and the prayer of Christ given on p. 105, with 
the conclusion of the same chapter (p. 59). 

2 See Le Monnier, /. c, p. 202, and Knox Little, /. c. } p. 164. 
Wadding, Annales, ad. an. 1213, places the writing of this 
letter two or three years earlier, which seems less probable. 




WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



97 



the Truce of God, wrote "to all the archbishops, 
bishops, priests and clerics inhabiting all Italy " to 
recommend to them "this new method come from 
heaven" of reestablishing and fixing peace among 
men. Even so Dante, in the excess of his grief, 
wrote 1 * to all the princes of the earth ' 9 to make 
known to them that, in losing Beatrice, "the earth 
had lost its spring and the future of the world was 
threatened." 1 Thus too St. Francis undertook in the 
present letter to recall "to all the Christians who are 
in the whole world," those eternal truths which are 
ever old and ever new, convinced as he was that the 
world must needs walk in their light if it only realized 
them more. For the rest, as has been remarked, 
the description it contains of the death of a rich man 
is, from a literary point of view, rightly considered 
the most carefully composed bit of St. Francis' 
writing that has come down to us. 

A fragment containing this realistic picture was 
published in 1900 by M. Sabatier, 2 who believed it to 
be a new and complete opuscule of St. Francis. But 
the very Incipit of the piece, ' 1 The body grows feeble, 
death approaches . . ." and the Explicit^ "dies 
a bitter death," clearly show that, with the exception 
of a few words at the opening, this " nouveau opus- 
cule ' ' is nothing more or less than an extract from 
St. Francis' letter to all the Faithful. 

Wadding, as I have already noted, following the 
lead of Rodolfo di Tossignano, 3 unskilfully divided 
this letter into two distinct epistles (I and II in his 

1 See Le Monnier, /. c> p. 203. To him I am indebted for 
these quotations. 

2 See his edition of Bartholi, Tractatus, Appendix, p. 132 seq. 

3 See Historiarum Seraphicae Religionis libri tres (Venice, 
1586), fol. 174 r, for^that part of the letter which Wadding gives 
as Epistola I 



9 3 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



edition). He has also distributed the letter into 
twelve chapters with separate titles. No doubt he 
was justified in doing so by the example of some 
codices, but the Quaracchi editors, following the best 
MSS., have omitted this division and it will not be 
found in the present translation. 1 

The letter to all the Faithful may be found entire 
in seventeen of the codices mentioned above, to wit, 
those at Assisi (fol. 23) ; Berlin (fol. 105) ; Florence 
(Ognissanti MS., fol. 7); St, Floriano (fol. 36); Foligno 
(fol. 25) ; Lemberg (fol. 341) ; Liegnitz (fol. 136) ; 
Munich (fol. 31); Oxford (fol. 98); Paris (Maz. MS. 
1743, fol. 137; Maz. MS. 989, fol. 193; Prot. theol. 
fac. MS., fol. 88); Rome (St. Isidore's MSS. Y25, fol. 
18 and y 7 , fol. 15; Vatican MSS. 4354, fol. 43, and 
7650, fol. 16), and at Dusseldorf (cod. B 132, fol. not 
numbered). 

Fragments of the letter may also be found in the 
codices at Luttich (fol. 158); Naples (F. 24, fol. 107), 
and Volterra (fol. 148). 2 For the text contained in 
the Quaracchi edition, the editors took as a basis the 
MSS. of Assisi and Ognissanti, collating these with 
the codices at St. Isidore's and with the versions ot 
the letter given in the Monumenta (tract II, fol. 278 r) 
and the Conformities (fruct. XII, P. n). 3 It is the 
Quaracchi text that I have here translated as follows: 

I. — LETTER TO ALL THE FAITHFUL. 

To all Christians, religious, clerics, and laics, 
men and women, to all who dwell in the whole 

1 It has been adopted in the new French edition of St. Fran- 
cis' works. See Opuscules, pp. 122-135. 

2 It was from this fourteenth century MS. that M. Sabatier 
edited as a new opuscule the fragment above mentioned. 

3 Bartholomew of Pisa here inserts the greater part of the 
letter passim. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



99 



world, Brother Francis, their servant and sub- 
ject, presents reverent homage, wishing true 
peace from heaven and sincere charity in the 
Lord. 

Being the servant of all, I am bound to serve 
all and to administer the balm-bearing words of 
my Lord. 1 Wherefore, considering in my mind 
that, because of the infirmity and weakness of 
my body, I cannot visit each one personally, I 
propose by this present letter and message 2 to 
offer you the words of our Lord Jesus Christ 
who is the Word of the Father and the words 
of the Holy Ghost which are " spirit and life." 8 

This Word of the Father, so worthy, so holy 
and glorious, whose coming the most High 
Father announced from heaven by His holy arch- 
angel Gabriel to the holy and glorious Virgin 
Mary 4 in whose womb He received the true 
flesh of our humanity and frailty, He, being 
rich 6 above all, willed, nevertheless, with His 
most Blessed Mother, to choose poverty. 

And when His Passion was nigh, He cele- 
brated the Pasch with His disciples and, taking 
bread, He gave thanks and blessed and broke 
saying : Take ye and eat : this is My Body. 
And, taking the chalice, He said : This is My 
Blood of the New Testament, which shall be 
shed for you and for many unto remission of 

1 Cod. O. reads : " all the words of the Lord." 

2 Cod. O. reads : " by this present letter and now." 

3 John 6 : 64. 

4 See Luke 1 : 31. 

5 See II Cor. 8:9. 



IOO 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



sins. 1 After that He prayed to the Father, 
saying : " Father, if it be possible, let this chalice 
pass from Me." 2 " And His sweat became as 
drops of blood, trickling down upon the 
ground." 3 But withal, He gave up His will to 
the will of the Father, saying : Father, Thy will 
be done : not as I will, but as Thou wilt. 4 Such 
was the will of the Father that His Son, Blessed 
and Glorious, whom He gave to us, and who was 
born for us, 5 should by His own Blood, sacrifice, 
and oblation, offer Himself on the altar of the 
Cross, not for Himself, by whom " all things were 
made," 6 but for our sins, leaving us an example 
that we should follow His steps. 7 And He 
wishes that we should all be saved by Him 8 and 
that we should receive Him with a pure heart 
and a chaste body. But there are few who wish 
to receive Him and to be saved by Him, although 
His yoke is sweet and His burden light. 9 

Those who will not taste how sweet the Lord 
is 10 and who love darkness rather than the light, 11 
not wishing to fulfil the commandments of God 
are cursed : of them it is said by the prophet : 
" They are cursed who decline from Thy com- 
mandments." 12 But, O how happy and blessed 

1 See Matt. 26 : 26-28 ; Luke 22 : 19-20 ; I Cor. n : 24-25. 

2 Matt. 26 : 39. 3 Luke 22 : 44. 

4 See Matt. 26 : 42 and 39. 

5 Cod. O. omits : " and was born for us." 

6 John 1:3. 7 See I Peter 2 : 21 . 

8 Cod. O. omits: "And He wishes that we should all be 
saved by Him." 

'•'See Matt. 11 : 30. 10 See Ps. 33 : 9. 

11 See John 3 : 19. 12 Ps. 118:21. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



101 



are those who love the Lord, who do as the Lord 
Himself says in the Gospel : " Thou shalt love 
the Lord thy God with thy whole heart and with 
thy whole soul and . . . thy neighbor as 
thyself 1 Let us therefore love God and adore 
Him with a pure heart and a pure mind because 
He Himself, seeking that above all, says : "The 
true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and 
in truth/' 2 For all who " adore Him, must 
adore Him in spirit and in truth. " 3 And let us 
offer Him praises and prayers day and night, 
saying : " Our Father who art in heaven," 
for "we ought always to pray, and not to 
faint." 4 

We ought indeed to confess all our sins to a 
priest and receive from him the Body and Blood 
of our Lord Jesus Christ. 5 He who does not eat 
His Flesh and does not drink His Blood cannot 
enter into the Kingdom of God. 6 Let him, 
however, eat and drink worthily, because he who 
receives unworthily "eateth and drinketh judg- 
ment to himself, not discerning the Body of the 
Lord," 7 — that is, not discerning it from other 
foods. 

Let us, moreover, " bring forth fruits worthy 
of penance." 8 And let us love our neighbors 
as ourselves, and, if any one does not wish to 

1 Matt. 22 : 37-39. 2 John 4 : 23. 

3 John 4: 24. 4 Luke 18: 1. 

5 Cod. O. adds : " For the Lord says, who does not eat," 
etc. 

6 See John 6 : 54. 7 1 Cor. 11 : 29. 
8 Luke 3:8. 



102 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



love them as himself or cannot, 1 let him at least 
do them not harm, but let him do good to them. 

Let those who have received the power of 
judging others, exercise judgment with mercy, 2 
as they hope to obtain mercy from the Lord. 
For let judgment without mercy be shown to 
him that doth not mercy. 3 Let us then have 
charity and humility and let us give alms because 
they wash souls from the foulness of sins. 4 For 
men lose all which they leave in this world ; they 
carry with them, however, the reward of charity 
and alms which they have given, for which they 
shall receive a recompense and worthy remuner- 
ation from the Lord. 

We ought also to fast and to abstain from 
vices and sins 5 and from superfluity of food and 
drink, and to be Catholics. We ought also to 
visit Churches frequently and to reverence cler- 
ics not only for themselves, if they are sinners, 
but on account of their office and administration 
of the most holy Body and Blood of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, which they sacrifice on the altar 
and receive and administer to others. And let 
us all know for certain that no one can be saved 
except by the Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ 
and by the holy words of the Lord which cler- 
ics say and announce and distribute and they 
alone administer and not others. But religious 

1 Cod. As. and editions omit " or cannot." 

2 Cod. O. reads : " judgment and mercy." 
s SeeJas. 2: 13. 4 See Tob. 4: 11. 
5 See Eccli. 3 : 32. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 103 

especially, who have renounced the world, are 
bound to do more and greater things, but " not 
to leave the other undone." 1 

We ought to hate our bodies with [their] vices 
and sins, because the Lord says in the Gospel 
that all vices and sins come forth from the 
heart. 2 We ought to love our enemies and do 
good to them that hate us. 3 We ought to ob- 
serve the precepts and counsels of our Lord 
Jesus Christ. We ought also to deny ourselves 
and to put our bodies beneath the yoke of servi- 
tude and holy obedience as each one has prom- 
ised to the Lord. And let no man be bound by 
obedience to obey any one in that where sin or 
offence is committed. 

But let him to whom obedience has been en- 
trusted and who is considered greater become as 
the lesser 4 and the servant of the other broth- 
ers, and let him show and have the mercy toward 
each of his brothers that he would wish to be 
shown to himself if he were in the like situation. 
And let him not be angry with a brother on 
account of his offence, but let him advise him 
kindly and encourage him with all patience and 
humility. 

We ought not to be " wise according to the 
flesh " 5 and prudent, but we ought rather to be 
simple, humble, and pure. And let us hold our 
bodies in dishonor and contempt because 
through our fault we are all wretched and cor- 

1 Luke 11 : 42. 2 See Matt. 15 : 18-19. 

3 See Luke 6 : 27. 4 See Luke 22 : 26. 

& I Cor. 1 : 26. 



I04 WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 

rupt, foul and worms, as the Lord says by the 
prophet : " I am a worm and no man, the re- 
proach of men and the outcast of the people." 1 
We should never desire to be above others, but 
ought rather to be servants and subject "to 
every human creature for God's sake." 2 And 
the spirit of the Lord 3 shall rest upon all those 
who do these things and who shall persevere to 
the end, and He shall make His abode and dwell- 
ing in them/ and they shall be children of the 
heavenly Father 6 whose works they do, and 
they are the spouses, brothers and mothers of 
our Lord Jesus Christ. We are spouses when 
by the Holy Ghost the faithful soul is united to 
Jesus Christ. We are His brothers when we do 
the will of His Father who is in heaven. 6 We 
are His mothers when we bear Him in our heart 
and in our body through pure love and a clean 
conscience and we bring Him forth by holy 
work which ought to shine as an example to 
others. 

how glorious and holy and great to have a 
Father in heaven ! O how holy, fair, and lovable 
to have a spouse in heaven ! 7 O how holy and 
how beloved, well pleasing and humble, peaceful 
and sweet and desirable above all to have such 
a brother who has laid down His life for His 
sheep, 8 and who has prayed for us to the Father, 

1 Ps. 2i : 7. 2 I Peter 2 : 13. 

3 See Is. 1 1 : 2. 4 See John 14 : 23. 

5 See Matt. 5 : 45. 6 See Matt. 12 : 50. 

7 Cod. As. and that of Volterra with the Mon. add: "the 
Paraclete." 8 See John 10: 15. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 105 

saying : Father, keep them in Thy Name whom 
Thou hast given Me. Father, all those whom 
Thou hast given Me in the world were Thine, 
and Thou hast given them to Me. And the 
words which Thou gavest Me I have given to 
them ; and they have received them, and have 
known in very deed that I came forth from Thee, 
and they have believed that Thou didst send Me. 
I pray for them : not for the world : bless and 
sanctify them. And for them I sanctify Myself 
that they may be sanctified in one as We also 
are. And I will, Father, that where I am, they 
also may be with Me, that they may see My 
glory in My kingdom. 1 

And since He has suffered so many things for 
us and has done and will do so much good to us, 
let every creature which is in heaven and on 
earth and in the sea and in the abysses render 
praise to God and glory and honor and bene- 
diction ; 2 for He is our strength and power who 
alone is good, 3 alone most high, alone almighty 
and admirable, glorious and alone holy, praise- 
worthy and blessed without end forever and 
ever. Amen. 

But all those who do not do penance and who 
do not receive the Body and Blood of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, but who give themselves to vices 
and sins and walk after evil concupiscence and 
bad desires and who do not observe what they 
have promised, corporally they serve the world 

1 See John 17 : 6-24. 2 See Apoc. 5 : 13. 

3 See Luke 18 : 19. 



io6 WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 

and its fleshly desires and cares and solicitudes 
for this life, but mentally they serve the devil, 
deceived by him whose sons they are and whose 
works they do ; blind they are because they see 
not the true light, — our Lord Jesus Christ. They 
have no spiritual wisdom, for they have not in 
them the Son of God who is the true wisdom of 
the Father : of these it is said : " their wisdom 
was swallowed up." 1 They know, understand, and 
do evil and wittingly lose their souls. Beware, 
ye blind, deceived by your enemies — to wit, by the 
world, the flesh and by the devil— for it is sweet 
to the body to commit sin and bitter to serve 
God because all vices and sins come forth and 
proceed from the heart of man, as it is said in 
the Gospel. 2 

And you have nothing of good in this world 
or in the future. You think to possess for long 
the vanities of this world, but you are deceived ; 
for a day and an hour will come of which you 
think not and do not know and are ignorant of. 
The body grows feeble, death approaches, neigh- 
bors and friends come saying : " Put your affairs 
in order." And his wife and his children, neigh- 
bors and friends, make believe to weep. And 
looking, he sees them weeping and is moved by 
a bad emotion, and thinking within himself he 
says : " Behold, I place my soul and body and my 
all in your hands." Verily, that man is cursed 
who confides and exposes his soul and body and 
his all in such hands. Wherefore, the Lord 

1 Ps. 106: 27. 2 See IViatt. 15 : 19. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 107 

says by the prophet : " Cursed be the man that 
trusteth in man." 1 And at once they cause a 
priest to come and the priest says to him : 
" Wilt thou do penance for all thy sins ?" He 
answers: "I will." "Wilt thou from thy sub- 
stance, as far as thou canst, satisfy for what thou 
hast done and for the things in which thou hast 
defrauded and deceived men." 2 He answers : 
" No."— And the priest says : " Why not ? "— 
" Because I have put everything into the hands 
of my relatives and friends." And he begins to 
lose the power of speech and thus this miserable 
man dies a bitter death. 3 

But let all know that wheresoever or howso- 
ever a man may die in criminal sin, without 
satisfaction — when he could satisfy and did not 
satisfy — the devil snatches his soul from his body 
with such violence and anguish as no one can 
know except him who suffers it. And all talent 
and power, learning and wisdom 4 that he 
thought to possess are taken from him. 5 And 
his relatives and friends take to themselves his 
substance and divide it and say afterwards : 
" Cursed be his soul because he could have ac- 
quired and given us more than he did, and did 

1 Jer. 17: 5. 

2 Cod. O. and Pis. read : " Wilt thou satisfy for the things 
taken unjustly, — that is, those things by which thou hast 
cheated thy neighbor." 

3 Cod. As. and Mon. omit: " a bitter death." Cod. Pis. 
and Volterra omit " miserable man." 

4 Cod. As. and Mon. omit "wisdom." 
6 See Luke 8 : 18. 



108 WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 

not acquire it." But the worms eat his body. 
And thus he loses soul and body in this short 
life and goes into hell, where he shall be tor- 
mented without end. 

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and 
of the Holy Ghost. Amen. 1 All to whom this 
letter may come, I, Brother Francis, your little 
servant, pray and conjure you by the charity 
which God is, 2 and with the will to kiss your feet, 
to receive these balm-bearing words 3 of our 
Lord Jesus Christ with humility and charity and 
to put them in practice kindly and to observe 
them perfectly. 4 And let those who do not know 
how to read have them read often and let them 
keep them by them with holy operation unto the 
end, for they are spirit and life. 5 And those 
who do not do this shall render an account on 
the day of Judgment before the tribunal of 
Christ. And all those who shall receive them 
kindly and understand them and send them to 
others as example, if they persevere in them 
unto the end, 6 may the Father and the Son and 
the Holy Ghost bless them. Amen. 

1 These words are not found except in Cod. As., which omits 
the following sentence : " All to whom this letter may come." 

2 See I John 4 : 16. 

3 Cod. As. and Mon. read: "that these words and 
others." 

4 Cod. As. and Mon. omit what follows up to "And all 
those." 

5 See John 6 : 64. 

6 See Matt. 10 : 22. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 109 
II. 

Letter to all the Friars. 

It was at the end of his days 1 when he was ill, 2 that 
St. Francis wrote this letter to the Minister General 
and to all the Friars. In it he confesses all his sins 
to God, to the Saints and to the Friars, and in 
weighty words urges once again what was ever upper- 
most in his mind and heart : reverence toward the 
Blessed Sacrament, observance of the Rule and the 
Divine Office. The same desires and counsels con- 
tained in this letter may also be found in the Testa- 
ment, and there is little doubt that both works were 
composed about the same time. 

This letter, like the preceding one, was wrongly 
divided by Rodolfo di Tossignano. 3 Wadding fol- 
lowing suit, made three separate epistles out of it, 4 an 
error all the more remarkable since Bartholomew of 
Pisa in his Conformities (fruct. xii, P. 11, n. 47) and 
before him Ubertino da Casale in the Arbor Vitae 
(1. v, c. vii, fol. 224) had edited the text correctly. 
Moreover, this useless division, which is not called 
for by the context of the letter but is rather in conflict 
with it, is not found in any of the early MS. collec- 
tions containing St. Francis' writings. 

The letter to all the Friars may be found in four- 
teen of the MSS. mentioned above as containing the 
letter to all the Faithful, to wit, those of Assisi, Dùs- 

1 So Ubertino da Casale tells us in his Arbor Vitae, finished 
on Mount La Verna, September 28, 1305 (1. v, cap. vii). 

2 As we learn from the rubric in the Assisi MS. 338 : " De 
lictera et ammonitione beatissimi patris nostri Francisci quam 
misit fratribus ad capitulum quando erat infirmus." 

3 Hist. Seraph., fol. 173 v. 

4 Epistles X, XI, and XII in his edition. 



no 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



seldorf, Florence (Ognissanti), St. Floriano, Foligno, 
Liegnitz, Munich, Oxford, Paris (all three MSS.), and 
Rome (both MSS. at St. Isidore's and cod. 4354 of 
the Vatican library). It is also contained in eight 
other codices : (1) Capistran (munic. lib. cod. xxii, 
fol. 85 r); (2) Freiburg in Switzerland (lib. ad Con- 
ventual Conv., cod. 23, 1. 60); (3) Paris (nat. lib. cod. 
18327, fol. 159 v); (4-5) Subiaco (monast. lib. cod. 
120, fol. 325 and 212, fol. 184); (6-7) Rome (St. An- 
tony's cod., fol. 61 r and 80 r, and Vatic, lib., cod. B. 
82, fol. 147 v); (8) Volterra (Guarnacci lib., cod. 225, 
fol. 151 r). Of these last named codices, the two 
Roman MSS. and that of Volterra date from the four- 
teenth century; the other five from the fifteenth. 

For the Quaracchi text of the letter, which is here 
translated, the MSS. of Assisi, 1 St. Antony's, Ognis- 
santi, and St. Isidore's, were collated with the ver- 
sions of it given in the Arbor Vitae (1. v, cap. vii, 
fol. 224 V), Monumenta (fol. 281 y) and Firmamenta 
(fol. 21 r). 2 It may be noted that in placing the prayer, 
"Almighty, Eternal God," etc., at the end of the 
letter, the Quaracchi editors have followed the order 
of the Assisian, Antonian, Liegnitz, and both Mazarin 
MSS. 3 But enough by the way of introduction to 
Letter II, which St. Francis addressed : — 

1 Following this MS., Mgr. Faloci edited the first part of the 
letter (to "world without end. Amen," — see page 116) in his 
Miss. Frances, t. VI, p. 94. 

2 The Mon. and Firm., like Rodolfo (fol. 173 v), give 
only the first part of the letter, which Wadding makes Epis. 
XII. 

3 It is placed immediately before the letter in the other family 
of MSS. mentioned in the Introduction, to which the Ognissanti 
MS. belongs. 



WRITINGS OF ST FRANCIS. 1 1 1 



TO ALL THE FRIARS. 

In the name of the Highest Trinity and Holy 
Unity of the Father and of the Son and of the 
Holy Ghost. Amen. 1 

To all the reverend and much beloved brothers, 
to 2 the minister general of the Order of Minors, 
its lord, and to the other ministers general who 
shall come after him, and to all the ministers and 
custodes and priests of the same brotherhood, 
humble in Christ, and to all the simple and obe- 
dient brothers, the first and the last, Brother 
Francis, a mean and fallen man, your little ser- 
vant, gives greeting in Him who has redeemed 
and washed us in His Precious Blood, 3 and whom 
when you hear His Name adore ye with fear and 
reverence, prostrate on the ground ? the Lord 
Jesus Christ, such is the Name 5 of the most 
High Son, blessed forever. Amen. 

1 Cod. As. omits this invocation. 

2 Cod. As. adds " to Brother A, minister general." It has 
been surmised that St. Francis wished this letter to be read 
at the opening of all subsequent chapters, with a view to per- 
petuating his spiritual presence among the brothers. In this 
hypothesis, the copyist was supposed to fill in here the initial 
of the minister general governing the order at the time he 
wrote. The fact that A is the initial given at the head of the 
Assisian MS. may afford a clue to the date of its composition 
(Albert of Pisa governed the order 1239-40, and ^4ymon of Fa- 
versham, 1240-44), but in the body of the letter (see below, p. 
117) the minister general is referred to as Brother H [//elias (?) 
1232-39]. Cod. An. at the head of the letter reads Brother T 
[Thomas of Farignano (?), 1367-73]. 

3 See Apoc. 1:5. 4 See Gen. 19: 1 and elsewhere. 
5 See Luke 1: 32. 



112 WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 

Hear, my lords, my sons and my brothers, and 
with your ears receive my words. 1 Incline the ear 2 
of your heart and obey the voice of the Son of 
God. Keep His commandments with all your 
heart and fulfil His counsels with a perfect mind. 
Praise Him for He is good 3 and extol Him in 
your works, 4 for therefore He has sent you 
through all the world that by word and deed 
you may bear witness to His voice, 5 and you may 
make known to all that there is no other Al- 
mighty besides Him. 6 Persevere under disci- 
pline 7 and obedience and with a good and firm 
purpose fulfil what you have promised Him. 
The Lord God offers Himself to you as to His 
sons. 8 

Wherefore, brothers, kissing your feet and 
with the charity of which I am capable, I con- 
jure you all to show all reverence and all honor 
possible to the most holy Body and Blood of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, in whom the things that are 
in heaven and the things that are on earth are 
pacified and reconciled to Almighty God. 9 I 
also beseech in the Lord all my brothers who 
are and shall be and desire to be priests 10 of the 
Most High that, when they wish to celebrate 
Mass, being pure, they offer the true Sacrifice 

i See Acts 2 : 14. 2 See Isa. 55 : 3. 

3 See Ps. 135 : 1. * See Tob. 13 : 6. 

& Cod. An. reads : "you may make all stand dumbfounded 
who oppose Him in word or deed." 
6 See Tob. 13:4. 7 See Heb. 12 : 7. 

» See Heb. 12 : 7. 9 See Col. 1: 20. 

10 The word priests is added in Cod. As., and by Ubertino. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 1 13 

of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ 
purely, with reverence, with a holy and clean 
intention, not for any earthly thing or fear or 
for the love of any man, as it were pleasing 
men. 1 But let every will, in so far as the grace 
of the Almighty helps, be directed to Him, 2 
desiring thence to please the High Lord Him- 
self alone because He alone works there [in the 
Holy Sacrifice] as it may please Him, for He 
Himself says : " Do this for a commemoration of 
Me ;" 3 if any one doth otherwise he becomes 
the traitor Judas 4 and is made guilty of the 
Body and Blood of the Lord. 5 

Call to mind, priests, my brothers, what is 
written in the law of Moses: how those trans- 
gressing even materially died by the decree of 
the Lord without any mercy. 6 How much more 
and worse punishments he deserves to suffer 
" who hath trodden under foot the Son of God 
and hath esteemed the Blood of the testament 
unclean by which he was sanctified and hath 
offered an affront to the spirit of grace." 7 For 
man despises, soils, and treads under foot the 
Lamb of God when, as the Apostle says, 8 not 
discerning and distinguishing the holy bread of 
Christ from other nourishments or works, he 

1 See Eph. 6 : 6, and Col. 3 : 22. 

2 Cod. As. reads : "to the Lord." 

3 Luke 22 : 19. 

4 Cod. O., Mon., and Firm., with Ubertino, omit the rest of 
this sentence. 

6 See I Cor. 11 : 27. 6 See Heb. 10 : 28. 

7 Heb. 10 : 29. 8 See I Cor. 11 : 29. 



ii4 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



either eats unworthily or, if he be worthy, he 
eats in vain and unbecomingly since the Lord 
has said by the prophet : Cursed be the man that 
doth the work of the Lord deceitfully. 1 And 
He condemns the priests who will not take this 
to heart saying : " I will curse your blessings/' 2 

Hear ye, my brothers : If the Blessed Virgin 
Mary is so honored, as is meet, because she bore 
Him in [her] most holy womb ; if the blessed 
Baptist trembled and did not dare to touch the 
holy forehead of God ; if the sepulchre in which 
He lay for some time, is venerated, how holy, 
just, and worthy ought he to be who touches 
with his hands, who receives with his heart and 
his mouth, and proffers to be received by others 
Him who is now no more to die but to triumph 
in a glorified eternity : on whom the angels de- 
sire to look. 3 

Consider your dignity, brothers, priests, and 
be holy because He Himself is holy. 4 And as 
the Lord God has honored you above all through 
this mystery, even so do you also love and rever- 
ence and honor Him above all. It is a great 
misery and a deplorable weakness when you 
have Him thus present to care for anything else 
in the whole world. Let the entire man be 
seized with fear ; let the whole world tremble ; 
let heaven exult when Christ, the Son of the 
Living God, is on the altar in the hands of the 
priest. O admirable height and stupendous con- 



1 See Jerem. 48 : 10. 
'■' See I Pet. 1:12. 



- Mai. 2 : 2. 

4 See Levit. 11 : 44. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 1 15 

descension ! humble sublimity ! O sublime 
humility ! that the Lord of the universe, God 
and the Son of God, so humbles Himself that 
for our salvation He hides Himself under a 
morsel of bread. Consider, brothers, the humil- 
ity of God and "pour out your hearts before 
Him, ,, 1 and be ye humbled that ye may be 
exalted by Him. 2 Do not therefore keep back 
anything for yourselves that He may receive you 
entirely who gives Himself up entirely to you. 

Wherefore I admonish and exhort in the Lord, 
that, in the places in which the brothers live, 
only one Mass be celebrated in the day, accord- 
ing to the form of holy Church. 3 If, however, 
there be many priests in the place, let one be 
contented, through love of charity, by hearing 
the celebration of another priest, for the Lord 
Jesus Christ replenishes those who are worthy 
of it, present and absent. He, although He 
may seem to be present in many places, never- 
theless remains undivided and suffers no change ; 
but One everywhere He works as it may please 
Him with the Lord God the Father, and the 

1 See Ps. 6i : 9. 2 See i Pet. 5 : 6. 

3 Philip Melanchthon in his Apology {Augsburg Confession, 
art. on the Mass) usurped these words of St. Francis to defend 
his erroneous teaching against private Masses. But there is 
nothing in this letter or elsewhere to show that St. Francis 
reprehended such Masses in any way. On the contrary, as the 
Bollandists point out, the words "according to the form of 
holy Church" refer to the rite of the Roman Church to be 
followed in the celebration of Mass and not to the one Mass 
to be celebrated daily. (See Ada S.S., t. II, Oct., pp. 998- 
999)- 



Il6 WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 

Holy Ghost the Paraclete, world without end. 
Amen. 

And since " he that is of God heareth the 
words of God/' 1 we who have been more spe- 
cially destined for the divine offices, ought, in 
consequence, not only to hear and do what God 
says, but also — in order to impress upon our- 
selves the greatness of our Creator and our sub- 
jection to Him — to watch the vessels and other 
objects which contain His holy words. On that 
account I warn all my brothers and I strengthen 
them in Christ, wheresoever they may find the 
divine written words to venerate them so far as 
they are able, and if they are not well preserved 
or if they lie scattered disgracefully in any place, 
let them, in so far as it concerns them, collect 
and preserve them, honoring in the words the 
Lord who has spoken. For many things are 
sanctified by the word of God, 2 and by the power 
of the words of Christ the Sacrament of the 
Altar is effected. 

Moreover I confess all my sins to God the 
Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost 
and to the Blessed Mary ever Virgin and to all 
the Saints in heaven and on earth and to the 
minister general of this our religion as to my 
venerable Lord, and to all the priests of our 
order and to all my other blessed brothers. I 
have offended in many ways through my griev- 
ous fault, especially because I have not observed 
the Rule which I have promised to the Lord and 

1 John 8 : 47. 2 See 1 Tim. 4 : 5. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. U 7 

I have not said the office as prescribed by the 
Rule either by reason of my negligence or weak- 
ness or because I am ignorant and simple. 
Wherefore, by all means as far as I am able, I 
beseech my lord, the general minister, to cause 
the Rule to be inviolably observed by all, and 
let the clerics say the office with devotion 
before God, not attending to melody of voice 
but to harmony of mind, so that the voice 
may be in accord with the mind and the mind 
in accord with God, so that they may please 
God by purity of mind and not coax the ears of 
the people by voluptuousness of voice. As for 
myself I promise to keep these things strictly, 
as the Lord may give me grace, and I leave them 
to the brothers who are with me to be observed 
in the office and in the other appointed regula- 
tions. But whosoever of the brothers will not 
observe them, I do not hold them as Catholics 
or as my brothers and I do not wish either to 
see them or speak [with them], until they have 
done penance. I say this also of all others who 
setting aside the discipline of the Rule, go wan- 
dering about ; for our Lord Jesus Christ gave 
His life lest He might lose the obedience of 
the most Holy Father. 1 

I, Brother Francis, a useless man and unworthy 
creature of the Lord God, say to Brother Elias, 
the minister of our whole religion, by our Lord 
Jesus Christ, and to all the ministers general 
who shall be after him and to the other custodes 

1 See Philip. 2 : 8. 



Il8 WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 

and guardians of the brothers, who are and shall 
be, that they have this writing with them, put it 
in practice and seduously preserve it. And I 
entreat them to guard jealously those things 
which are written in it and to cause them to be 
carefully observed according to the good pleasure 
of the Almighty God now and ever as long as 
this world may last. 

Blessed be you by the Lord who shall have 
done these things and may the Lord be with 
you forever. Amen. 

Almighty, eternal, just, and merciful God, give 
to us wretches to do for Thee what we know 
Thee to will and to will always that which is 
pleasing to Thee ; so that inwardly purified, in- 
wardly illumined and kindled by the flame of the 
Holy Ghost, we may be able to follow in the 
footsteps of Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, 
and by Thy grace alone come to Thee the Most 
High, who in perfect Trinity and simple Unity 
livest and reignest and gloriest God Almighty 
forever and ever. Amen. 1 

1 This prayer, which, as I have said, is found in some MSS. 
at the head and in others at the foot of the present letter, is 
separated from it altogether by Wadding, who (p. 101) places 
it immediately after the sheet given by St. Francis to Brother 
Leo. There it is also found in the new French edition of the 
Opascula (p. 25). 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



119 



III. 

To a Certain Minister. 

The tenor of this letter seems to indicate that it 
was written before the confirmation of the Second 
Rule by Pope Honorius; 1 and very likely in the early 
part of 1223. All the early MSS. attribute it to St. 
Francis and, as regards both matter and form, it 
closely resembles the Saint's other writings. There is, 
however, no small diversity of opinion as to whom it 
was addressed. But from the wording of the last 
paragraph of the letter, referring to the chapter : 
"thou wilt be there with thy brothers,' '' it would 
appear to have been sent to some provincial minister 
rather than to the minister general. Moreover, as 
Professor Goetz rightly remarks, 2 the beginning of the 
letter implies that this minister had proposed some 
doubts or difficulties as to the manner of dealing with 
brothers who had fallen into sin. Hence the abrupt 
opening of the letter, " I speak to thee on the sub- 
ject of thy soul," etc., refers to some question which 
the letter is intended to answer, and from the fact that 
patience is commended "more than a hermitage," 
the Quaracchi editors think we might infer that 
the minister in question was desirous of embracing 
a solitary life. Be this as it may, I am unable to 

1 It refers to " the chapters which speak of mortal sin" 
which are only found in the First Rule (see pp. 37, 47, 53), and 
speaks of proposed changes in the Rule which could not, as 
is clear, have been made after November, 1223. In particular 
the subject of the tenth chapter of the new Rule discussed in 
the Chapter held at Portiuncula, June nth of that year (see 
Spec. Per/., ed. Sabatier, c. 1), is mentioned as not yet defi- 
nitely settled. 

2 See Ouellen, etc^t.. XXII, p. 547, 



I20 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



agree with M. Sabatier in so far as he finds in this 
letter " more objurgations and reproaches than coun- 
sels." 1 

The letter exists in the Vatican MS. 7650, St. Isi- 
dore's MS. y 2 5 an d the Ognissanti and St. Floriano 
codices above described. The first part of it may 
also be found in the National Library at Naples (Cod. 
XII, F. 32). An abridgment of the Letter is given 
by Rodolfo ; 2 a different abstract is found in the Con- 
fermities.* In the more complete summary furnished 
by Wadding, 4 it might be possible with M. Sabatier, 
and Dr. Lempp, 6 owing to the omission of a large 
piece of the letter, to read into St. Francis' words the 
precept that a brother guilty of mortal sin should be 
absolved without any penance. But with the full text 
of the letter before us, any such attempt is, needless 
to say, impossible, as Mr. Carmichael has clearly 
shown. 7 

The complete text of this important letter was first 

1 " . . . plus des objurgations et des reproches que des 
conseils." — Sabatier, Bartholi, p. 120. 

2 Hist. Seraph., fol. 177 v. 

3 Fruct. XXII, P. 11, n. 46. The part here given is that 
which Wadding exhibits as Epis. VI. M. Sabatier is clearly 
mistaken in regarding these different abstracts of the letter 
published separately as so many complete epistles. He says : 
". . . Frère Elie ne se corrigeant pas, le saint ne cessa pas 
de lui faire des recommendations identiques," /. e, p. 119. 

4 See Epis. Vili. This is a different and longer version than 
that given in the Conformities. Wadding gives yet another 
abstract of the letter as Epis. VII. This he translated from 
the Spanish, though he confesses misgivings as to the authen- 
ticity of its form. 

s See his edition of Bartholi, pp. 113-131. 

6 See Frère Elie de Cortone, p. 51, where the idea of abol- 
ishing penances is described as "so Franciscan." 

7 See " The Writings of St. Francis," in the Month, January, 
1904, pp. 161-164. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



121 



published by Fr. Edouard d' Alencon, Archivist Gen- 
eral of the Capuchins, in his Spicilegium Francis- 
cantimi next by M. Sabatier in his edition of Bar- 
tholi, 2 and again by Dr. Lempp in his monograph 
on Elias. 3 Besides these we have now the versions 
of Professor Boehmer and the Quaracchi edition. The 
latter text, which I have here rendered into English, 
is based on the MSS. of Ognissanti and St. Isidore's 
(cod. Y25) which have been collated with the Neapol- 
itan MS. already referred to and the editions of the 
letter published by Fr. Edouard d' Alencon and M. 
Sabatier. 

Now for the text of the letter 

TO A CERTAIN MINISTER. 4 

To Brother N. . . Minister; may the Lord bless 
thee. 

I speak to thee as best I can on the subject of 
thy soul ; that those things which impede thee 

1 In 1899 ; after the Vatican MS. 7650, and the Foligno codex. 
See Epistola S. Francisci ad ministrimi generalem in sua 
forma authentica cum appendice de Fr. Petro Catanii. 

2 In 1900, after the Ognissanti MS. See his Bartholi, p. 113. 

3 In 1900. See his Frère Elie de Cortone, p. 50 seq. 

4 This is the superscription of the Neapolitan MS. Accord- 
ing to the greater number of codices the letter is addressed : 
"To Brother N . . . Minister." The MSS. of Foligno and 
St. Isidore's read: "To Brother N . . . Minister General," 
and some Italian versions cited by M. Sabatier (see Bartholi, 
p. 121, note 1) add the name of Brother Elias (see also Ro- 
dolfo, /. c, fol. 177 v.). The rubric in the second family of 
MSS. already described (See Introd.) reads simply "Letter 
which St. Francis sent to the Minister General as to the way to 
be followed regarding brother subjects sinning mortally or 
venially." Wadding {Opusc. } p. 25, n. 1) thinks the letter was 
addressed to Peter of Catana. See Speculum Minorum, fol. 
218 v. 



122 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



in loving the Lord God and whosoever may be 
a hindrance to thee, whether brothers or others, 
even though they were to strike thee, — all these 
things thou oughtest to reckon as a favor. And 
so thou shouldst desire and not otherwise. And 
let this be to thee for true obedience from the 
Lord God and from me ; for this I know surely 
to be true obedience. And love those that do 
such things to thee and wish not other from 
them, save in so far as the Lord may grant to 
thee ; and in this thing love them, — by wishing 
that they may be better Christians. 1 And let 
this be to thee more than a hermitage. 2 And by 
this I wish to know if thou lovest God and me 
His servant and thine, to wit : that there be no 
brother in the world who has sinned, how great 
soever his sin may be, who after he has seen thy 
face shall ever go away without thy mercy, if he 
seek mercy, 5 and, if he seek not mercy, ask 

1 For the rendering of this doubtful passage : et in hoc dilige 
eos ut velis quod sint meliores Christiani, I have translated 
the Latin text as given in the Isidorean MS. V 25 , in the 
Conformities (fol. 132, v), in Wadding's edition (Epis. VIII), 
and in that of Quaracchi (p. 108). In the Ognissanti MS., 
however, this passage reads et non velis "and do not desire 
that they be better Christians." This reading has been fol- 
lowed by Fr. Edouard d'Alencon and M. Sabatier. The latter 
thinks St. Francis is here referring to ungrateful and recalci- 
trant lepers whom he was wont to call Christians. But in that 
hypothesis the passage might be translated "and do not 
desire to make them better lepers !" 

2 Cod. O. for eremitorium reads meritorium. But may not 
this very improbable reading be that most common thing in 
early MSS., — the slip of a copyist? 

3 Cod. O. omits the remainder of this sentence. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 123 

thou him if he desires mercy. And if he after- 
wards appears 1 before thy face a thousand times, 
love him more than me, to the end that thou 
mayest draw him to the Lord, and on such ones 
always have mercy. And this thou shouldst 
declare to the guardians, when thou canst, that 
thou art determined of thyself to do thus. 

Concerning all the chapters that are in the 
Rule that speak of mortal sins 2 we shall at the 
chapter of Whitsuntide, God helping, with the 
counsel of the brothers, make such a chapter as 
this : If any brother, at the instigation of the 
enemy, sin mortally, let him be bound by obe- 
dience to have recourse to his guardian. And 
let all the brothers who know him to have sin- 
ned, not cause him shame or slander him, but 
let them have great mercy on him and keep very 
secret the sin of their brother, for they that are 
healthy need not a physician, but they that are 
ill. 3 And let them be likewise bound by obe- 
dience to send him to his custos with a com- 
panion. And let the custos himself care for him 
mercifully as he himself would wish to be cared 
for by others if he were in a like situation. 

[And if he should fall into any 4 venial sin, let 
him confess to his brother priest, and if there 
be no priest there let him confess to his brother, 
until he shall find a priest who shall absolve him 

1 The Neapolitan MS. for " appears" reads "sins." 

2 Chaps. V, XIII, and XX of the first Rule. (See above, 
PP. 37, A7, and 53.) 

3 See Matt. 9: 12. 

4 Cod. O. reads: "another." 



124 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



canonically, as has been said,] 1 and let them 
have absolutely no power of enjoining other 
penance save only this : go and sin no more. 2 

In order that this writing may be able to be 
better observed, have it by thee until Whitsun- 
tide : thou wilt be there with thy brothers. 
And these and all other things which are less in 
the Rule, thou shalt, the Lord God helping, take 
care to fulfil. 

1 In chap. XX of the First Rule (see above, p. 53). The pas- 
sage enclosed in brackets is the part omitted by Wadding 
and those who have followed him. 

2 See John 8: 11. 




WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 1 25 



IV. 

To the Rulers of the People. 

This letter is known to us only by the testimony of the 
Ven. Francis Gonzaga, O.F.M., 1 who, speaking 
of the Province of Aragon in his work on the origin 
of the Seraphic Order, 2 mentions that Bl. John Parenti, 
first Minister General after St. Francis (1227 — 1232), 
brought a copy of the letter into Spain. On the good 
faith of Gonzaga, Wadding included this letter in his 
edition of the Opuscula, where it figures as Epist. 
XV. As the style of the letter and the ideas it em- 
bodies corresponded so admirably with the writings 
of St. Francis, the Quaracchi editors and Professor 
Goetz, 3 have not hesitated to accept it as genuine. 
No copy of the letter other than that transcribed by 
Wadding has so far been found, and it is according 
to his text of 1623 that it is here translated : — 

TO THE RULERS OF THE PEOPLE. 

To all podestds, and consuls, judges and gov- 
ernors, in whatever part of the world, and to all 
others to whom this letter may come, Brother 
Francis, your little and contemptible servant, 
wishes health and peace to you. 

Consider and see that the day of death draws 
nigh. 4 I ask you, therefore, with such reverence 
as I can, not to forget the Lord on account of the 
cares and solicitudes of this world and not to 

1 Minister General of the Order, 1579-1587, afterwards 
Bishop of Mantua (see Acta Ordinis Minorum t 1904, p. 265). 

2 De Origine Seraphicae Religionis Franciscanae (Venice 
1603), p. 806. 

3 See Quellen, etc., p. 535. 4 See Gen. 47 : 39. 



126 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



turn aside from His commandments, for all those 
who forget Him and decline from His command- 
ments are cursed 1 and they shall be forgotten by 
Him. 2 And when the day of death comes, all 
that which they think they have shall be taken 
away from them. 3 And the wiser and more 
powerful they may have been in this world, so 
much the greater torments shall they endure 
in hell. 4 

Wherefore, I strongly advise you, my lords, 
to put aside all care and solicitude and to receive 
readily the most holy Body and Blood of our 
Lord Jesus Christ in holy commemoration of 
Him. And cause so great honor to be rendered 
the Lord by the people committed to you, that 
every evening it may be announced by a crier 
or by another sign to the end that praises and 
thanks shall resound to the Lord God Almighty 
from all the people. And if you do not do this, 
know that you are beholden to render an ac- 
count before your Lord God Jesus Christ on the 
day of Judgment. Let those who keep this 
writing with them and observe it know that they 
are blessed by the Lord God. 



1 See Ps. 118 : 21. 
3 See Luke 8: 18. 



2 See Ezech. 33 : 12. 
4 See Wis. 6 : 7. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 1 27 



V. 

TO ALL THE CUSTODES. 

adding seems to have known of this letter indi- 



V V rectly. At least he gives us a shorter letter 
addressed to the custodes. The beginning of the 
epistle he numbers XIV is similar to the one which 
is translated here and seems to be an incomplete 
summary of the latter. It is difficult, however, to 
decide conclusively, since the original form of the 
letter, which Wadding translated from the Spanish, 
is wanting. The solution of the question would be 
to ascertain from what source this Spanish letter was 
drawn . 

The letter was first published in its present form 
by M. Sabatier in 1900 from a fourteenth century MS. 
in the Guarnacci library at Volterra. 1 The Quaracchi 
text is also based on this codex, than which no other 
version of the letter is known to exist. Internal argu- 
ments might, however, be adduced to establish the 
authenticity of the letter, which is as follows : — 



To all the custodes of the Brothers Minor to 
whom this letter shall come, Brother Francis, 
your servant and little one in the Lord God, 
sends greeting with new signs of heaven and 
earth 2 which on the part of the Lord are great 
and most excellent and which are accounted least 
of all by many religious and by other men. 

I entreat you more than if it were a question 

1 Cod. 225, mentioned above (p. no). See Sabatier's Bar- 
tholi, p. 135. 

2 Seemingly an allusion to the mysteries of the Eucharist. 




TO ALL THE CUSTODES. 



128 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



of myself that, when it is becoming and it may 
seem to be expedient, you humbly beseech the 
clerics to venerate above all the most holy Body 
and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ and His 
Holy Name and written words which sanctify 
the body. 1 They ought to hold as precious the 
chalices, corporals, ornaments of the altar, and 
all that pertain to the Sacrifice. And if the 
most holy Body of the Lord be lodged very 
poorly in any place, let It according to the com- 
mand of the Church be placed by them and left 
in a precious place, and let It be carried with 
great veneration and administered to others with 
discretion. The Names also and written words 
of the Lord, wheresoever they may be found in 
unclean places, let them be collected, and they 
ought to be put in a proper place, 

And in all the preaching you do, admonish the 
people concerning penance and that no one can 
be saved except he that receives the most sacred 
Body and Blood of the Lord. 2 And while It is 
being sacrificed by the priest on the altar and It 
is being carried to any place, let all the people 
on bended knees render praise, honor, and glory 
to the Lord God Living and True. 

And you shall so announce and preach His 
praise to all peoples that at every hour and when 
the bells are rung praise and thanks shall always 
be given to the Almighty God by all the people 
through the whole earth. 

1 An obvious reference to the formula of consecration. 

2 See John 6 : 54. 



WRITINGS OF ST FRANCIS. 



129 



And to whomsoever of my brothers, custodes, 
this writing shall come, let them copy it and 
keep it with them and cause it to be copied for 
the brothers who have the office of preaching 
and the care of brothers, and let them unto the 
end preach all those things that are contained 
in this writing : let them know they have the 
blessing of the Lord God and mine. And let 
these be for them through true and holy obedi- 
ence. 



13° WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



VI. 

To Brother Leo. 

The authenticity of this letter cannot be challenged. 
The original autograph is jealously preserved at 
the Cathedral of Spoleto. In Wadding's time it was 
kept at the Conventual church in that place, but 
subsequently disappeared in some way and there was 
no trace of it until 1895, when Father Cardinali, a 
priest of Spoleto, placed it in the hands of Mgr. 
Faloci. The latter presented it to Pope Leo XIII and, 
after reposing for some three years in the Vatican, it 
was, at the request of Mgr. Serafini, Archbishop of 
Spoleto, returned to the cathedral there. 1 Only one 
other autograph of St. Francis is known to exist. 2 
The scope of the letter is obvious : it is a word ot 
tender encouragement and counsel to the Frate 
pecorella de Dio, St. Francis' most intimate com- 
panion and friend, who at the time was harassed 
with doubts and fears. The form of the letter 
seems to present some difficulties to certain critics. 
For example, St. Francis at the outset uses the 
words: F Leo F. Francisco tuo salutem et pacem. 
It is, of course, clear that this superscription cannot 
be interpreted in such a way as to make Brother 
Leo the author of the letter ; in that case it would 
be Francisco suo, and no one, so far as I know, 
has ever attempted this violence to the text. But 
there have been some who, thinking St. Francis did 
not know the difference between a dative and a nomi- 

1 See Gli Autografi di Francesco, by Mgr. Faloci {Misc. 
Franc, t. VI, p. 33), and La Calligrafia di S. Francesco, by 
the same author {Misc. Franc, t. VII, p. 67). 

-The Blessing given to Brother Leo (see below, Part III). 




LETTER OF ST. FRANCIS TO BROTHER 
LEO, PRESERVED AT SPOLETO. ( S<?<? 

page /jo.) 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 131 



native, have not hesitated to tamper with the text so 
as to bring the Latin of the Poverello into conformity 
with what they think to be better grammar. 1 I confess 
that I find no difficulty in translating the superscrip- 
tion as it stands in the original autograph. As a 
general rule, no doubt, it is the sender of a letter that 
greets the one to whom it is sent. But, in this case, 
the humility of St. Francis has led him to change 
parts and he appeals for a blessing instead of bestow- 
ing one. I find myself therefore in thorough accord 
with Mr. Carmichael's clever solution of this ques- 
tion and agree with him that St. Francis, always 
imaginative, meant what he wrote, and that 14 there 
is really a deep, sweet, and most pathetic meaning in 
the Saint's peculiar mode of address." Accordingly, 
the superscription ought to read * 1 Brother Leo, wish 
thy brother Francis health and peace." It is thus, 
following Mr. Carmichael, that I have translated it 
here. 

As regards the use of the plural (facialis) in the 
body of the note which perplexed Wadding, since 
the singular seems to be called for, some think with 
the Quaracchi editors that the Saint, writing so famil- 
iarly to Leo, adopts the Italian form ; others, with M. 
Sabatier, 2 that Brother Leo had spoken in the name 
of a group. Perhaps it may not be amiss to recall in 
this connection, what Celano tells us of St. Francis' 
method of composition 3 as well as of the letter 

1 See, for example, the parallel Latin and Italian text given 
by Father Bernardo da Fivizzano, O.M.Cap., in his edition 
of the Oposculi (Florence, 1880), which reads : "F". Leo Fra- 
ter Franciscus tuus salutem et pacem." 

2 " Ce pluriel montre bien que Frère Leon avait parie au 
nom d'un groupe." — Sabatier: Vie de S. Francois, p. 301. 

3 When he caused any letters to be written by way of salu- 
tation or admonition, he would not suffer any letter or sylla- 



132 WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



of the Saint mentioned by Eccleston, in which 
there was faulty Latin. 1 A French critic 2 thinks we 
might perhaps be justified in identifying the letter 
referred to by Eccleston with the one to Brother Leo 
now under consideration. Be this as it may, the 
context of the present letter leads one to suppose 
that at the time it was written Brother Leo was not 
yet habitually with St. Francis. In this hypothesis, 
we must fix the date of its composition not later than 
1 220. 3 It need not be wondered at if, after nearly 
seven centuries, some words in the autograph letter 
preserved at Spoleto are difficult to read. Hence 
some trifling variants occur in the texts published by 
Wadding 4 and Faloci. 5 The Quaracchi text which 
I have here translated is edited after the original : — 

TO BROTHER LEO. 

Brother Leo, wish thy brother Francis health 
and peace ! 

I say to thee : Yes, my son, and as a mother ; 
for in this word and counsel I sum up briefly all 
the words we said on the way, and if afterwards 
thou hast need to come to me for advice, thus I 
advise you : In whatever way it seemeth best to 
thee to please the Lord God and to follow His 

ble in them to be erased, though they were often superfluous 
or unsuitably placed. (See 1 Cel. 82.) 

1 See Eccleston : De Adventu Minorimi in Angliam {Mon. 
Germ, hist., Scriptores, t. XXVIII, p. 563), although another 
reading is given in the Anal. Franc, t. I, p. 232, and by Fr. 
Cuthbert, O.S.F.C., The Friars, etc., p. 167. 

2 Fr. Ubald d'Alencon, Opuscules, p. 23. 

3 See Spec. Per/, (ed. Sabatier), p. lxiv, note 3. 

4 Opuscula, Epist. XVI. 

6 Misc. Franc, t. VI, p. 39. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 133 

footsteps and poverty, so do with the blessing of 
the Lord God and in my obedience. And if it 
be necessary for thee on account of thy soul 
or other consolation and thou wishest, Leo, to 
come to me, come ! 1 

1 It is interesting to compare with this letter the somewhat 
similar expressions of encouragement used by St. Francis to 
Brother Richer. See i Cel. i, 49; Spec. Per/, (ed. Sabatier), 
c. 2 and 16 ; Actus B. Francisci, c. 36 and 37. 



PART III 



PRAYERS OF ST. FRANCIS 



I. 



The Praises. 




This opuscule is composed of two 
parts : a paraphrase of the Lord's 
Prayer and the Praises properly so- 
called. It is contained in all the early 
MS. collections of St. Francis' works 1 
either in its entirety as it is given 
here, or in part — that is, the Para- 
phrase without the Praises or vice versa. 
With the exception of a single codex 
which attributes the paternity of this paraphrase to 
the Blessed Brother Giles, 2 the third companion of 
St. Francis, the MSS. authorities are unanimous in 
ascribing the entire work to St. Francis. This 
fact, taken in conjunction with the internal argu- 
ment in its favor, puts the authority of the Praises 
beyond doubt, in the opinion of the Quaracchi edi- 
tors. M. Sabatier is of like mind and even expresses 
regret 3 that Professor Boehmer 4 should have been 

1 It is found in the Assisi MS. 338 and in the compilation 
beginning Fac secundum exemplar contained in the Berlin, 
Lemberg, Liegnitz MSS. and the Vatican codex 4354, as well 
as in the other family of MSS. represented by the Ognissanti 
and Foligno MSS. and the codices of St. Isidore's (Y25) and 
the Vatican 7650. 

2 A fourteenth century codex at St. Isidore's Rome (MS. Viz, 
fol. 10 v). But I have not found it in any of the collections of 
Brother Giles' Dicta which I have had occasion to consult in 
preparing the new English version of the same I hope soon 
to publish. 

3 See Opuscules, fase, x, pp. 136-137. As a postscript to his 
Examen M. Sabatier gives the text of the paraphrase of the 
Our Father after the rare edition of the Speculum (Morin). 

4 See Analekten, p. 71. 



138 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



% misled into classing the Praises as doubtful or unau- 
thentic. Those who accept the French critic's views 
as to the value of his Speculum Perfectionis will find 
in that remarkable work an additional argument in 
favor of the genuinity of the complete opuscule now 
engaging our attention. In particular M. Sabatier 
applies to the present Praises what is said in the 
Speculum of the penance imposed by St. Francis on 
the brothers at Portiuncula for speaking idle words. 1 
The Quaracchi Fathers have edited the text of the 
Praises according to the Assisian, Antonian, and 
Isidorean (Y25) MSS. and have collated these early 
versions with the editions of the Praises given in the 
Monumenta (fol. 275 v), Firmamento, (fol. 18 v), and 
the Liber Conformitatum (fruct. xii, P. II, evi). 2 The 
result of their labors is here translated as follows : — 

1 " He also ordained and ordered it to be strictly observed 
that any friar who either when doing nothing or at work with 
the others, uttered idle words, shall say one Our Father, 
praising God at the beginning and end of the prayer ; and if 
conscious of his fault he accuse himself, he shall say the one 
0?cr Father and the Praises of the Lord for his own soul. 
. . . And if on reliable testimony he is shown to have used 
idle words, he shall repeat the Praises of the Lord at the be- 
ginning and at the end aloud so as to be heard and under- 
stood by the surrounding friars," etc. Further on we read : 
"The Praises of the Lord the most Blessed Father always 
said himself, and with ardent desire taught and impressed 
upon the friars that they should carefully and devotedly say 
the same." See Spec. Per/, (ed. Sabatier), c. 82. I have 
quoted this passage from Lady de la Warr's translation, pp. 
1 21-122. See also Opuscules, fase, x, p. 137, where M. Sabatier, 
speaking of the relation of the Speculum to the Praises, says : 
" Les deux documents se correspondent, se corroborent et se 
garantissent l'un l'autre." 

2 The Conformities, edition of 1510, gives the complete text 
as the handiwork of St. Francis. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 139 



PRAISES. 

Here are begun the Praises which the most 
blessed Father Francis composed ; and he said 
them at all the Hours of the day and night and 
before the Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 
beginning thus : " Our Father, most holy, who 
art in heaven," etc., with " Glory be to the 
Father." Then the Praises, Holy, Holy, etc., are 
to be said. 1 

Our Father, most holy, our Creator, Redeemer, 
and Comforter. 

Who art in heaven, in the angels and in the 
saints illuminating them unto knowledge, for 
Thou, O Lord, art light ; inflaming them unto 
love, for Thou, O Lord, art Love ; dwelling in 
them and filling them with blessedness, for Thou, 
O Lord, art the highest Good, the eternal Good 
from whom is all good and without whom is no 
good. 

Hallowed be Thy Name : may Thy knowledge 
shine in us that we may know the breadth of 
Thy benefits, the length of Thy promises, the 
height of Thy majesty, and the depth of Thy 
judgments. 2 

Thy Kingdom come, that Thou mayest reign in 
us by grace and mayest make us come to Thy 
Kingdom, where there is the clear vision of Thee, 

1 Such is the rubric which precedes the Praises in the Assi- 
sian MS. 

2 See Eph. 3 : 18. 



HO WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



the perfect love of Thee, the blessed company 
of Thee, the eternal enjoyment of Thee. 

Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, that 
we may love Thee with the whole heart by al- 
ways thinking of Thee ; with the whole soul by 
always desiring Thee ; with the whole mind by 
directing all our intentions to Thee and seeking 
Thy honor in all things and with all our strength, 
by spending all the powers and senses of body 
and soul in the service of Thy love and not in 
anything else ; and that we may love our neigh- 
bors even as ourselves, drawing to the best of 
our power all to Thy love ; rejoicing in the good 
of others as in our own and compassionating 
[them] in troubles and giving offence to no one. 

Give ms this day, through memory and under- 
standing and reverence for the love which He 
had for us and for those things which He said, 
did, and suffered, for us, — our daily bread. Thy 
Beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. 

And forgive us our trespasses, by Thy ineffable 
mercy in virtue of the Passion of Thy Beloved 
Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and through the 
merits and intercession of the most Blessed 
Virgin Mary and of all Thy elect. 

As we forgive them that trespass against us, 
and what we do not fully forgive, do Thou, O 
Lord, make us fully forgive, that for Thy sake 
we may truly love our enemies and devoutly 
intercede for them with Thee ; that we may 
render no evil for evil, but in Thee may strive 
to do good to all. 



WRITINGS OF ST FRANCIS, 



141 



And lead us not into temptation, hidden or 
visible, sudden or continuous. 

But deliver us from evil, past, present, and to 
come. Amen. 

Glory be to the Father, etc. 

Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, who 
is and who was and who is to come. 1 Let us 
praise and exalt Him above all forever. 2 

Worthy art Thou, O Lord, our God, to receive 
praise, glory and honor and benediction. 3 Let 
us praise and exalt Him above all forever. 

The Lamb that was slain is worthy to receive 
power and divinity and wisdom and strength and 
honor and benediction. 4 Let us praise and exalt 
Him above all forever. 

Let us bless the Father and the Son with the 
Holy Ghost. Let us praise and exalt Him above 
all forever. 

All ye works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord. 5 
Let us praise and exalt Him above all forever. 

Give praise to God all ye His servants and you 
that fear Him, little and great. 8 Let us praise 
and exalt Him above all forever. 

Let the heavens and the earth praise Him, the 
Glorious, and every creature which is in heaven 
and on earth and under the earth, in the seas 
and all that are in them. 7 Let us praise and 
exalt Him above all forever. 

1 See Apoc. 4:8. 2 See Dan. 3 : 57. 

3 See Apoc. 4 : 11. 4 See Apoc. 5 : 12. 

6 See Dan. 3 : 57. 6 See Apoc. 19 : 5 

7 See Apoc. 5 : 13. 



142 WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and 
to the Holy Ghost. Let us praise and exalt Him 
above all forever. 

As it was in the beginning, is now and ever 
shall be world without end. Amen. Let us 
praise and exalt Him above all forever. 

Prayer. 

Almighty, most holy, most high, and supreme 
God, highest good, all good, wholly good, who 
alone art good. To Thee we render all praise, 
all glory, all thanks, all honor, all blessing, and 
we shall always refer all good to Thee. Amen. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



H3 



II. 



Salutation of the Blessed Virgin. 
his little prayer enjoys the same title to authenticity 



1 as the preceding opuscule, and Professor Boeh- 
mer 1 and M. Sabatier 2 are in complete accord with the 
Quaracchi editors as to its genuinity. With the 
exception of the Assisi codex, it is found in all the 
early MS. collections containing the Praises. The 
text here translated is based on the MS. at Ognis- 
santi and St. Isidore's (Y25), which were collated by 
the Quaracchi editors with the versions given in the 
Conformities (fruct. xii, P. 11, c. v.) and the Speculum 
B. Francisci (ed. 1 and 2, fol. 127 r). 

salutation of the blessed virgins 

Hail, holy Lady, most holy Queen, Mother 
of God, Mary who art ever Virgin, chosen from 
Heaven by the most Holy Father, whom He has 
consecrated with the most holy beloved Son and 
the Ghostly Paraclete, in whom was and is all 
the fulness of grace and all good. Hail thou 
His palace ! 4 Hail thou His tabernacle. ! 5 Hail 
thou His house. Hail thou His garment ! Hail 
thou His handmaid ! Hail thou His Mother and 
all ye holy virtues which by the grace and 

1 Analekten, p. xxvii. 2 Opuscules, fase, x, p. 134. 

3 The text given by Wadding (Ofiusc, p. 105) was copied 
by him from an Irish MS. at Salamanca. 

4 Cod. Is. omits from " Hail thou His tabernacle " to " Hail 
thou His handmaid," inclusive. 

5 Wadding omits from " Hail thou His house" to "Hail 
thou His handmaid," inclusive. 




144 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



illumination of the Holy Ghost thou infusest 
in the heart of the faithful, that from infidels 
ye mayest make them faithful to God. 1 

3 The text of the Conformities and Wadding here add the 
second part of the antiphon given below in the Office of the 
Passion beginning " Mother of our most Holy Lord Jesus 
Christ," etc. In the Speculum (ed. Morin, 1509) this Saluta- 
tion is followed by another prayer to the Blessed Virgin (see 
Sabatier, Opuscules, fase, x, p. 164) ; but from the begin- 
ning of the seventeenth century, the second prayer is no 
longer found in the text of the Speculum (see the edition of 
Spoelberch, P. I, pp. 176-178, and Wadding, Opusc, p. 107). 
In the opinion of Professor Boehmer this Salutation ought to 
follow immediately after the Salutation of the Virtues given 
above (p. 20). See his Analekten, pp. vi and xxviii. They 
are found in this order in the Spec. Vitae of 1504 and the 
Vatican MS. 4354. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 145 



III. 

Prayer to Obtain Divine Love. 

The authenticity of this prayer, accepted by the 
Quaracchi editors, rests on the authority of St. 
Bernardine of Siena 1 and Ubertino da Casale, 2 both 
of whom are quoted in its behalf by Wadding. The 
prayer is here translated according to the text given 
by Ubertino in his Arbor Vitae Crucifixae composed 
on La Verna in 1305. 3 It follows : — 



PRAYER. 

I beseech Thee, O Lord, that the fiery and 
sweet strength of Thy love may absorb my soul 
from all things that are under heaven, that I 
may die for love of Thy love as Thou didst 
deign to die for love of my love. 

1 St. Bernardine died in 1444. See his Opera Omnia, t. II, 
sermo 60, art. 11, c. 11. 
' 2 See Arbor Vitae, 1. v, c. iv. 

3 See Ehrle, Archiv, etc., vol. II, pp. 374-416, as to the writ 
ings of Ubertino. 



146 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



IV. 



The Sheet which St. Francis gave Brother Leo. 
The earliest witness to this document is Thomas of 



A Celano,who in his Second Life (written about 1 247) 
records that ' ' while the Saint was remaining secluded 
in his cell on Mount La Verna, one of the companions 
conceived a great desire to have some memorial from 
words of the Lord written by the hand of St. Francis 
and briefly annotated by him. . . . One day 
Blessed Francis called him, saying, 1 Bring me paper 
and ink, for I wish to write the words of God and His 
praises which I have been meditating in my heart.' 
What he asked for being straightway brought, he 
writes with his own hand the praises of God and the 
words which he [his companion] wished, and lastly 
a blessing of the brother, saying : ' Take this sheet 
{chartulani) for thyself and until the day of thy death 
guard it carefully.' All temptation was at once driven 
away ; the letter is kept and worked wonders for the 
time to come." 1 

The original autograph of the sheet here described 
by Celano is reverently preserved in the sacristy of 
the Sacro Convento at Assisi. 2 It has been men- 
tioned in the archives of the convent since 1348 and 
is borne in procession annually at the opening of the 
feast of the "Perdono" or Portiuncula Indulgence. 
Many pages have been consecrated by scholars 3 to 

1 2 Cel. 2, 18; see also Bonav. Leg. Maj., XI, 9, where the 
narration is clearly borrowed from Celano. 

2 A photograph of the reliquary containing it is here repro- 
duced. 

3 For example Papini La Storia dì S. Francesco, t. I, p. 130, 
n. 8, Grisar, see Civiltà Cattolicà, fase. 1098 (1896), p. 723; 
Mgr. Faloci Pulignani, Misc. Franc, t. VI (1895), p. 34; Fr. 




WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 1 47 



this small, crumpled piece of parchment and as they 
are easily accessible it would be superfluous to touch 
here upon the controversial minutiae connected with 
it. Suffice it to say that on the reverse side of the 
sheet containing the Praises is found the Biblical 
blessing. The latter was dictated to Brother Leo, but 
at the bottom St. Francis himself wrote the personal 
blessing, adding what Wadding described as a " large 
and mysterious thau or letter T } 9 which he was wont 
to use as his signature, as both Celano 1 and St. 
Bonaventure 2 inform us. 

To authenticate this relic Brother Leo himself 
added to it three notes; the first reads: " Blessed 
Francis wrote with his own hand this blessing for 
me, Brother Leo; ' 1 and the second: " In like manner 
he made this sign thau together with the head with 
his own hand. ' ' More valuable still is the third an- 
notation, since it fixes the date of this precious docu- 
ment. I give it in full : ' 4 Blessed Francis two years 
before his death kept a Lent in the place of Mount La 
Verna in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the 
Mother of the Lord, and of the blessed Michael the 
Archangel, from the feast of the Assumption of the 

Edouard d'Alencon, La Benediction de Si. Francois/ M. 
Sabatier, Spec. Per/., pp. lxvii-lxx ; Reginald Balfour, The 
Seraphic Keepsake ; and Montgomery Carmichael, La Bene- 
dizione di San Francesco. See also Fr. Saturnino da Caprese, 
O.F.M., Guida Illustrata della Verna (Prato, 1902), p. 93. 
On the testimony of three leading German palaeographers, 
Wattenbach, Dziatzko and Meyer, see Theol. Literatur- 
Zeitung, Leipzig, 1895, pp. 404 and 627. 

1 Says Celano : " The sign thau was more familiar to him 
than other signs. With it only he signed sheets for de- 
spatch and he painted it on the walls of the cells anywhere." 
See Tr. de Miraculis, in Anal. Boll., t. xviii, pp. 114-115. 

2 " He signed it upon all the letters he directed." See 
Bonav. Leg. Maj. y IV, 3. 



148 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



holy Virgin Mary until the September feast of St. 
Michael. And the hand of the Lord was laid upon 
him; after the vision and speech of the Seraph and 
the impression of the Stigmata of Christ in his body 
he made and wrote with his own hand the Praises 
written on the other side of the sheet, giving thanks 
to the Lord for the benefits conferred on him." 

An examination of the original autograph shows 
that, while the side of the sheet containing the Bless- 
ing is excellently preserved, the other one on which 
the Praises are written, is, for the most part, illegible 
and in consequence some variants are to be found in 
different MS. versions of it. After a careful collation 
of these MSS. with the autograph, the Quaracchi 
editors found the Assisi codex 344 more conformable 
to the original than any other. It is after this four- 
teenth century MS. of the library of the Sacro Con- 
vento and which appears to have been copied from 
the autograph, that the Quaracchi editors published 
the text which I now translate : — 

PRAISES OF GOD. 

Thou art holy, Lord God, who alone workest 
wonders. Thou art strong. Thou art great. 
Thou art most high. Thou art the Almighty- 
King, Thou, holy Father, King of heaven and 
earth. Thou art the Lord God Triune and One ; 
all good. Thou art good, all good, highest good, 
Lord God living and true. Thou art charity, 
love. 1 Thou art wisdom. Thou art humility. 
Thou art patience. Thou art security. Thou 
art quietude. Thou art joy and gladness. Thou 

1 These words seem to be transposed in the autograph. 



AUTOGRAPH BLESSING GIVEN BY ST. FRANCIS TO BROTHER 
LEO, PRESERVED IN THE SACRO CONVENTO AT ASSISI. 

( See page 146. ) 



I 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



149 



art justice and temperance. Thou art all riches 
to sufficiency. 1 Thou art beauty. Thou art 
meekness. Thou art protector. Thou art guar- 
dian and defender. Thou art strength. Thou 
art refreshment. Thou art our hope. Thou art 
our faith. Thou art our great sweetness. Thou 
art our eternal life, great and admirable Lord, 
God Almighty, merciful Saviour. 

After this expression of the mystical ardors which 
consumed the Poverello comes : — 

THE BLESSING OF BROTHER LEO. 

May the Lord bless thee and keep thee. May 
He shew His face to thee and have mercy on 
thee. May He turn His countenance to thee 
and give thee peace. 2 Brother LeTo 8 may the 
Lord bless thee. 

1 From this point to the end of the Praises the autograph is 
illegible. 

2 See Num. 6 : 24-26. 

3 Mr. Balfour points out that the position of Leo's name in 
relation to the thau is intentional and that the thau thus 
becomes a cross of blessing, St. Francis, following the prac- 
tice of all old Missals and Breviaries, having placed it so as to 
divide the name of the person blessed. See The Seraphic 
Keepsake, p. 106. 



ISO 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



V. 



The Canticle of the Sun. 
f the several "cantica in vulgari " which St. 



v—' Francis composed, the only one that has come 
down to us, as far as is known, is the <4 Praises of the 
Creatures," or, as it is now more commonly called, 
" The Canticle of the Sun. " Celano, who alludes to 
this laud, says of St. Francis that he was of the race 
of Ananias, Azarias and Misael, inviting all creatures 
with him to glorify Him w r ho made them. 1 It is this 
side of St. Francis' thoughts which finds expression 
in the Canticle; and in this particular order of ideas 
modern religious poetry has never produced anything 
comparable to this sublime improvisation into which 
have passed alike "all the wealth of the Saint's 
imagination and all the boldness of his genius." 2 
Tradition tells us that Fra Pacifico had a hand in the 
embellishment of this laud, 3 about which a whole 
controversial literature has grown.* Some light may 
perhaps be thrown on this delicate question in the 
new critical edition of the Canticle promised by Luigi 
Suttina. 

The Canticle appears to have been composed 
toward the close of the year 1225 in a poor little hut 
near the Monastery of San Damiano, whither St. 

1 See 2 Cel. 3, 138-139, and 1 Cel. So. 

2 See Cherancé, Life of St. Fra?icis, p. 260. 

3 See on this head Ozanam, Les Poètes Franciscains, p. S2, 
and Matthew Arnold, Essays on Criticism, pp. 243-24S. Mr. 
Arnold's translation of the Canticle is well known. 

4 For a list of the more important studies on it, see Specu- 
lum Perfectionis (ed. Sabatier), p. 2S9 ; L. Suttina, Appunti 
bibliografici di studi francescani, p. 19; also Gasparjfy's 
Italian Literature to the death of Dante, p. 35S. 




WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 15* 

Francis had retired on account of his infirmities, and, 
if we may believe the tradition which finds formal 
expression in the Speculum Per) *e ctionis, two strophes 
were subsequently added by the Saint to the original 
composition, — the eighth strophe upon the occasion 
of a feud between the Bishop and the magistrates of 
Assisi, and the ninth one when the Saint recognized 
the approach of death. M. Renan, with what Canon 
Knox Little 1 calls "his characteristic inaccuracy," 
asserts that we do not possess the Italian original of 
the Canticle, but have only an Italian translation 
trom the Portuguese, which was in turn translated 
from the Spanish. 2 And yet the original Italian text 
exists, as M. Sabatier notes, 3 not only in numerous 
MSS. in Italy and France, notably in the Assisi MS. 
338 4 and at the Mazarin Library, 5 but also in the 
Book of the Conformities. 

The Canticle is accepted as authentic by Professors 
Boehmer and Goetz in their recent works on the 
Opuscula of St. Francis. If it does not figure in the 
Quaracchi edition, the reason is that the Bibliotheca 
Franciscaiia Ascetica Medii sEvi, of which the 
Opuscula forms part, is confined to works written 
in Latin, and hence M. Sabatier' s animadversions on 
the ' ' theological preoccupations ' ' of the Quaracchi 
editors are altogether aside the mark. 

The text of the Canticle here translated is that of 
the Assisi MS. 338 (fol. 33), from which the version 

1 See his St. Francis of Assisi, p. 235, note 2. 

2 See Nouvelles Etudes dliistoire religieuse, p. 331. 

3 Vie de S. Francois, p. xxxiv and chap, xviii. 

4 This text was published by Fr. Panfilo da Magliano, 
O.F.M., in his Storia Compendiosa, also by M. Sabatier in 
his Vie de S. Francois and later in his Speculum, pp. 334-35. 

5 Professor Boehmer published the text of the Maz. MS, 1350 
in his Sonnengesang v. Fr. d'A., in 1871. 



152 WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



given in the Conformities (pars. 2, fol. ii) 1 differs only 
by some unimportant variants. The following is an 
attempt to render literally into English the naif 
rhythm of the original Italian, which necessarily dis- 
appears in any formal rhymed translation : 

HERE BEGIN THE PRAISES OF THE CREATURES 
WHICH THE BLESSED FRANCIS MADE TO THE 
PRAISE AND HONOR OF GOD WHILE HE WAS ILL 

AT ST. damian's : 

Most high, omnipotent, good Lord, 
Praise, glory and honor and benediction 

all, are Thine. 
To Thee alone do they belong, most High, 
And there is no man fit to mention Thee. 

Praise be to Thee, my Lord, with all Thy crea- 
tures, 

Especially to my worshipful brother sun, 

The which lights up the day, and through him 

dost Thou brightness give ; 
And beautiful is he and radiant with splendor 

great ; 

Of Thee, most High, signification gives. 

Praised be my Lord, for sister moon and for the 
stars, 

In heaven Thou hast formed them clear and 
precious and fair. 

1 I have had the advantage of studying two of the oldest 
MSS. of this work known,— those of the convents of La Verna 
and Portiuncula. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 153 



Praised be my Lord for brother wind 

And for the air and clouds and fair and every 

kind of weather, 
By the which Thou givest to Thy creatures 

nourishment. 
Praised be my Lord for sister water, 
The which is greatly helpful and humble and 

precious and pure. 

Praised be my Lord for brother fire, 

By the which Thou lightest up the dark. 

And fair is he and gay and mighty and strong. 

Praised be my Lord for our sister, mother earthy 
The which sustains and keeps us ( 
And brings forth diverse fruits with grass and 
flowers bright._J 

Praised be my Lord for those who for Thy love 
forgive 

And weakness bear and tribulation. 

Blessed those who shall in peace endure, 

For by Thee, most High, shall they be crowned. 

Praised be my Lord for our sister, the bodily 
death, 

From the which no living man can flee. 

Woe to them who die in mortal sin ; 

Blessed those who shall find themselves in Thy 

most holy will, 
For the second death shall do them no ill. 

Praise ye and bless ye my Lord, and give Him 
thanks, 

And be subject unto Him with great humility. 



154 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



VI. 

The Office of the Passion. 

Although the early biographies of St. Francis are 
silent as to this opuscule, its authenticity is guar- 
anteed by the Legend of St. Clare written by Thomas 
of Celano toward the end of his life. 1 In reference 
to the holy abbess' devotion to the Passion we are 
told by Celano that she " learned and frequently 
recited with attachment the Office of the Cross which 
Francis, the lover of the Cross, had instituted." 2 
This passage was rightly understood by Wadding as 
referring to the Office of the Passion which many 
early MSS. attribute to St. Francis, and the character 
of which altogether squares with the Saint's writ- 
ings. Composed, as it is, of a simple and devout 
combination of Scriptural texts, this document is at 
once a witness to St. Francis' ardent devotion to the 
Crucified and a precious example of his method of 
prayer. It comprises five parts : 

1. For the three last days of Holy Week and for 
week-days throughout the year. 

2. For the Paschal season. 

3. For Sundays and feast-days throughout the year. 

4. For Advent. 

5. For Christmas and the days following, to the 
close of the Epiphany octave. 

The text of the Office given in the Quaracchi edi- 
tion is that of the Assisi MS. 338, only a few rubrical 
notes having been omitted. The Office may also be 

1 It was soon after the canonization of St. Clare, about 
1256, that Celano undertook the task of compiling this legend 
by order of Alexander IV. 

2 See Acta 5.5., t. II, Aug., p. 761. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



155 



found in MSS. at Oxford, 1 Berlin, 2 and Liegnitz 3 
already described. 4 It has never before, so far as I 
know, been translated into English. Here it is : — 

OFFICE OF THE PASSION OF THE LORD. 

Here begin the Psalms which our most blessed Father 
Francis arranged to reverence and recall and praise the 
Passion of the Lord. And they begin from Compline on 
Maundy Thursday because on that night our Lord Jesus 
Christ was betrayed and taken captive. And note that 
the Blessed Francis was wont to say this office thus : 
First he said the Prayer which the Lord and Master taught 
us : Our Father most holy? with the Praises, to wit, 
Holy, Holy, Holy. 10 When he had finished the Praises 
with the Prayer he began this antiphon, namely : Holy 
Mary. First he said the Psalms of the holy Virgin ; 
besides he said other Psalms which he had selected, and 
at the end of all the Psalms which he said, he said the 
Psalms of the Passion, the Psalm being finished he said 
the antiphon, namely, Holy Virgin Mary. When this 
antiphon was finished, the office was completed. 

I. — AT COMPLINE. 

Ant. Holy Virgin Mary. 
Psalm. 

Ps. 55 : 9. O God, I have declared to Thee my 
life ; Thou hast set my tears in 
Thy sight. 

1 See Little in Opuscules, t. I, p. 276. 

2 See Spec. Perf. (ed. Sabatier), p. cxcvi. 

3 See Opuscules, t. I, p. 55. This MS. contains only the 
first part of the Office ; it ends with the words the " Lord 
hath reigned." 

4 See above, p. 3-4. Other MSS. containing the Office are 
enumerated by Wadding. See also Boehmer's Analekten. 

6 See above, p. 139. 
6 See above, p. 141. 



I5 6 WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 

Ps. 40 : 8. All my enemies devised evils against 
me. 

Ps. 70 : 10. They have consulted together. 
Ps. 108: 5. And they have repaid me evil 

for good and hatred for my love. 
Ps. 108 : 4. Instead of making me a return of 

love they detracted me ; but I gave 

myself to prayer. 
Ps. 21 : 12. My holy Father, King of heaven 

and earth, depart not from me ; for 

tribulation is near and there is none 

to help. 

Ps. 55 : 10. When I cry unto Thee, then shall 
mine enemies be turned back ; be- 
hold I know that thou art my God. 

Ps. 37 : 12. My friends and my neighbors have 
drawn near and stood against me ; 
and they that were near me stood 
afar off. 

Ps. 87 : 9. Thou hast put away my acquaint- 
ance far from me ; they have set 
me an abomination to them ; I 
was delivered up and came not 
forth. 

Ps. 21 : 20. Holy Father, remove not Thy help 
far from me : My God, look toward 
my help. 

Ps. 37 : 23. Attend unto my help, O Lord, the 
God of my salvation, — Glory be. 
Holy Virgin Mary, there is none 
like unto Thee born in the world 
among women, daughter and hand- 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



157 



maid of the most high King, the 
heavenly Father! Mother of our 
most holy Lord Jesus Christ, 
Spouse of the Holy Ghost; pray 
for us, with St. Michael Archangel, 
and all the Virtues of heaven, and 
all the Saints, to thy most holy, 
beloved Son, our Lord and Master. 
Glory be to the Father and to the 
Son and to the Holy Ghost. As 
it was in the beginning is now and 
ever shall be world without end. 
Amen. 

Note that the foregoing antiphon is said at all the 
Hours and it is said for antiphon, chapter, hymn, ver- 
sicle, and prayer, and at Matins and at all the Hours like- 
wise. He said nothing else in them except this antiphon 
with its Psalms. At the completion of the office Blessed 
Francis always said : Let us bless the Lord God living 
and true ; let us refer praise, glory, honor, blessing and 
all praise to Him, always. Amen. Amen. Fiat. Fiat. 

AT MATINS. 

Ant. Holy Virgin Mary. 
Psalm. 

Ps. 87 : 2. O Lord, the God of my salvation, I 
have cried in the day and night 
before Thee. 

Ps. 87 : 3. Let my prayer come in before Thee; 

incline Thy ear to my petition. 

Ps. 68 : 19. Attend to my soul and deliver 
it : save me because of my ene- 
mies. 



15 s WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 

Ps. 21 : io. For Thou art He that hast drawn 
me out of the womb ; my hope 
from the breasts of my mother ; 

Ps. 21 : li. I was cast upon Thee from the 
womb. From my mother's womb 
Thou art my God ; 

Ps. 2i : 12. Depart not from me. 

Ps. 68 : 20. Thou knowest my reproach and 
my confusion and my shame. 

Ps. 68: 21. In Thy sight are all they that 
afflict me : my heart hath expected 
reproach and misery. 
And I looked for one that would 
grieve together with me, but there 
was none, and for one that would 
comfort me and I found none. 

Ps. 85 : 14. O God, the wicked are risen up 
against me and the assembly of the 
mighty have sought my soul ; and 
they have not set Thee before 
their eyes. 

Ps. 87 : 5.I am counted among them that go 

down to the pit ; I am become as 

a man without help, 
Ps. 87 : 6. free among the dead. 

Thou art my Father, most holy, 

my king and my God. 
Ps. 37 : 23. Attend unto my help, O Lord God 

of my salvation. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 159 



AT PRIME. 

Ant. Holy Mary. 
Psalm. 

Ps. 56: 1. Have mercy on me, O God, have 
mercy on me ; for my soul trusteth 
in Thee. 

Ps. 56 : 2. And in the shadow of Thy wings 
will I hope, until iniquity pass away. 

Ps. 56 : 3. I will cry to my most holy Father, 
the Most High : to God, who hath 
done good to me ; 

Ps. 56 : 4. He hath sent from heaven and de- 
livered me ; He hath made them a 
reproach that trod upon me. 
God hath sent His power and His 
truth. 

Ps. 17 : 18. He delivered me from my strongest 
enemies and from them that hated 
me; for they were too strong 
for me. 

Ps. 56 : 7. They prepared a snare for my 
feet ; and they bowed down my 
soul ; they dug a pit before my 
face ; and they are fallen into it. 

Ps. 56 : 8. My heart is ready, O God, my heart 
is ready ; I will sing, and rehearse 
a psalm. 

Ps. 56 : 9. Arise, O my glory, arise psaltery 
and harp ; 
I will arise early. 



ióo 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



Ps. 56 : 10. I will give praise to Thee, 
Lord, among the people ; I will 
sing a psalm to Thee among the 
nations ; 

Ps. 56: 11. For Thy mercy is magnified even 

to the heavens ; and Thy truth 

unto the clouds. 
Ps. 56: 12. Be Thou exalted, O God, above 

the heavens ; and Thy glory above 

all the earth. 



AT TIERCE. 

Ant. Holy Mary. 
Psalm. 

Ps. 55: 2. Have mercy on me, O God, for 
man hath trodden me under foot ; 
all the day long he hath afflicted 
me, fighting against me. 

Ps. 55 : 3. My enemies have trodden on me 
all the day long ; for they are many 
that make war against me. 

Ps. 40 : 8. All my enemies devised evil against 
me ; 

Ps. 70 : 10. they have taken counsel together. 

Ps. 40 : 7. They went out and spoke to the 
same purpose. 

Ps. 21 : 8. All they that saw me have laughed 
me to scorn ; they have spoken 
with the lips and wagged the head. 

Ps. 21 : 7. But I am a worm and no man, a 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 161 

reproach of men and outcast of 
the people. 

Ps. 30: 12. I am become a reproach among 
all my enemies and very much to 
my neighbors ; and a fear to my 
acquaintance. 

Ps. 21 : 20. Holy Father, remove not Thy help 
far from me ; my God, look toward 
my defense. 

Ps. 37 : 23. Attend unto my help, O Lord 
God of my salvation. Glory be, 
etc. 

AT SEXT. 

Ant. Holy Mary. 
Psalm. 

2. I cried to the Lord, with my voice ; 
with my voice I made my suppli- 
cation to the Lord. 

3. I pour out my prayer in His sight ; 
and before Him I declare my 
trouble. 

4. When my spirit failed me, then 
Thou knewest my paths. In this 
way wherein I walked, they have 
hidden a snare for me. 

5. I looked on my right-hand, and 
beheld, and there was no one that 
would know me. Flight hath failed 
me ; and there is no one that hath 
regard to my soul. 



Ps. 141 : 
Ps. 141 : 
Ps. 141 : 

Ps. 141 : 



IÓ2 



WRITINGS OF ST FRANCIS. 



Ps. 68 : 8. Because for Thy sake I have borne 
reproach ; shame hath covered my 
face. 

Ps. 68 : 9. I am become a stranger to my 
brethren ; and an alien to the sons 
of my mother. 

Ps. 68 : 10. Holy Father, the zeal of Thy 
house hath eaten me up ; and the 
reproaches of them that reproached 
Thee are fallen upon me. 

Ps. 34: 15. And they rejoiced against me and 
gathered together ; scourges were 
gathered together upon me and I 
knew not. 

Ps. 68 : 5. They are multiplied above the 
hairs of my head who hate me 
without cause ; 

My enemies are grown strong 
who have wrongfully persecuted 
me ; then did pay I that which I 
took not away. 

Ps. 34: 11. Unjust witnesses rising up, have 
asked me things I knew not. 

Ps. 34: 12. They repaid me evil for good 
and 

Ps. 37: 21. detracted me; because I followed 
goodness. 

Thou art my Father, most holy ; 
my King and my God. 
Ps. 37 : 23. Attend unto my help, O Lord 
God of my salvation. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 163 



AT NONES. 

Ant. Holy Mary. 
Psalm . 

Lam. 1 : 12. O all ye that pass by, attend and 
see if there be any sorrow like to 
my sorrow. 

Ps. 21 : 17. For many dogs have encompassed 

me ; the council of the malignant 

hath besieged me. 
Ps. 21 : 18. They looked and stared upon me ; 
Ps. 21 : 19. they parted my garments among 

them and upon my vesture cast lots. 
Ps. 21 : 17. They have dug my hands and my 

feet ; 

Ps. 21 : 18. they numbered all my bones. 

Ps. 21 : 14. They have opened their mouth 

against me : as a lion ravening and 

roaring. 

Ps. 21 : 15. I am poured out like water and all 
my bones are scattered. 
And my heart is become like melt- 
ing wax in the midst of my bowels. 

Ps. 21 : 16. My strength is dried up like a pot- 
sherd ; and my tongue hath cleaved 
to my jaws. 

Ps. 68 : 22. And they gave me gall for my food : 
and in my thirst they gave me 
vinegar to drink. 

Ps. 21 : 16. And Thou hast brought me into 
the dust of death ; 



164 



WRITINGS OF ST FRANCIS. 



Ps. 68 : 27. and they have added to the grief 
of my wounds. 

I slept and rose again ; and my 
most holy Father received me with 
glory. 

Ps. 72 : 24. Holy Father, Thou hast held my 
right hand ; and by Thy will Thou 
hast conducted me and hast re- 
ceived me with glory. 

Ps. 72: 25. For what have I in heaven; and 
besides Thee what do I desire 
upon earth ? 

Ps. 45: 11. Be still and see that I am God, 
saith the Lord ; I will be exalted 
among the nations and I will be 
exalted in the earth. 
Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, 

Ps. 33 : 23. who has redeemed the souls of 
His servants with His own most 
holy Blood ; and none of them that 
trust in Him shall offend. 

Ps. 95: 13. And we know that He cometh ; for 
He will come to judge justice. 



AT VESPERS. 

Ant. Holy Mary. 
Psalm. 

Ps. 46 : 2. O clap your hands, all ye nations, 
shout unto God with the voice of 
joy. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 165 



Ps. 46 : 3. For the Lord is high, terrible : 
He is a great king over all the 
earth. 

For the most holy Father of heaven, 
our King, before ages sent His be- 
loved Son from on high : 

Ps. 73 : 12. and hath wrought salvation in the 
midst of the earth. 

Ps. 95 : 11. Let the heavens rejoice and let the 
earth be glad, let the sea be moved 
and the fulness thereof : 

Ps. 95 : 12. the fields and all that are in them 
shall be joyful. 

Ps. 95: 1. Sing unto Him a new canticle; sing 
unto the Lord, all the earth. 

Ps. 95 : 4. For the Lord is great and exceed- 
ingly to be praised ; 
He is to be feared above all gods. 

Ps. 95 : 7. Bring to the Lord, O ye kindreds 
of the gentiles, bring to the Lord 
glory and honor. 

Ps. 95 : 8. Bring to the Lord glory unto His 
Name. 

Bring your own bodies and bear 
His holy cross ; and follow His 
most holy precepts even unto the 
end. 

Ps. 95 : 9. Let all the earth be moved at His 
presence ; 

Ps. 95 : 10. say among the gentiles that the 
Lord hath reigned. 



i66 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



; 



It is said up to this place daily from Good Friday until 
the feast of the Ascension. On the feast of the Ascen- 
sion, however, these versicles are added over and above : 

And He ascended unto heaven ; 
and sitteth on the right-hand of 
the most Holy Father in heaven. 
Ps. 56 : 12. Be Thou exalted, O God, above the 
heavens ; and Thy glory above all 
the earth. 

Ps. 95 : 13. And we know that He cometh : for 
He will come to judge justice. 

And note that from the Ascension until the Advent of 
the Lord this Psalm is said daily in the same manner, 
namely : " O clap your hands," with the foregoing ver- 
sicles, "Glory be to the Father" being said where the 
Psalm ends, namely, " for He will come to judge with 
justice." 

Note that the foregoing Psalms are said from Good 
Friday until Easter Sunday : they are said in the same 
manner from the octave of Whitsunday until the Advent 
of the Lord and from the octave of the Epiphany until 
Maundy Thursday, 1 except on Sundays, and the principal 
feasts, on which they are not said : on the other days 
however they are said daily. 

HOLY SATURDAY AT COMPLINE. 

Ant. Holy Mary. 
Psalm. 

Ps. 69 : 2. O God, etc. (Ps. 69), as in the 
Psalter. 

It is said daily at Compline until the octave of 
Pentecost. 

1 The Oxford Codex here reads "until Easter Sunday." 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



167 



EASTER SUNDAY AT MATINS. 

Ant. Holy Mary. 
Psalm. 

Ps. 97 : 1. Sing ye to the Lord a new canticle : 
for He hath done wonderful things. 
His right hand hath sanctified His 
Son ; and His arm is holy. 

Ps. 97 : 2. The Lord hath made known His 
salvation ; He hath revealed His 
justice in the sight of the gentiles. 

Ps. 41 : 9. In the day time the Lord hath com- 
manded His mercy: and a canticle 
to Him in the night. 

Ps. 117: 24. This is the day which the Lord 
hath made : let us rejoice and be 
glad in it. 

Ps. 117: 26. Blessed be He that cometh in the 

name of the Lord. 
Ps. 117: 27. The Lord is God and He hath 

shone upon us. 
Ps. 95 : 1 1. Let the heavens rejoice and let the 

earth be glad : let the sea be moved 

and the fulness thereof. 
Ps. 95 : 12. The fields shall rejoice and all that 

are in them. 

Ps. 95 : 7. Bring to the Lord, O ye kindreds 
of the gentiles, bring to the Lord 
glory and honor : 

Ps. 95 : 8. bring to the Lord glory unto His 
Name. 



i68 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



It is said up to this place daily from Easter Sunday to 
the feast of the Ascension at all the Hours except at Ves- 
pers and Compline and Prime. On the night of the As- 
cension these verses are added : — 

Ps. 67: 33. Sing ye to God, ye kingdoms of 
the earth : sing ye to the Lord : 
sing ye to God, 

Ps. 67 : 34. who mounteth above the heaven 
of heavens to the east. Behold 
He will give to His voice the voice 
of power : 

Ps. 67: 35. give ye glory to God for Israel: 
His magnificence and His power is 
in the clouds. 

Ps. 67: 36. God is wonderful in His saints: 
the God of Israel is He who will 
give power and strength to His 
people. Blessed be God. 

And note that this Psalm is said daily from the Ascen- 
sion of the Lord until the octave of Whitsunday with the 
foregoing versicles at Matins and Tierce and Sext and 
Nones: "Glory be to the Father," being said where "Bles- 
sed be God " is said, and not elsewhere. Also note that 
it is said in the same manner only at Matins on Sundays 
and the principal feasts, from the octave of Whitsunday 
until Maundy Thursday because on that day the Lord 
ate the Pasch with His disciples, or the other Psalm may 
be said at Matins or at Vespers when one wishes, to wit, 
" I will extol Thee, O Lord," as it is in the Psalter, and 
this from Easter Sunday to the feast of the Ascension 
and not longer. 

AT PRIME. 

Ant Holy Mary. 
Psalm. Have mercy on me, etc. — as above, p. 1 59. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 1 69 



AT TIERCE, SEXT AND NONES. 

Psalm, Sing ye to the Lord, etc. — as above, p. 167. 

AT VESPERS. 

Psalm. O clap your hands, etc. — as above, p. 164. 

Here begin the other psalms which our most blessed 
Father Francis likewise arranged which are to be said 
in place of the foregoing psalms of the Passion of the 
Lord on Sunday and the principal festivities from the 
octave of Whitsunday until Advent and from the octave 
of the Epiphany until Maundy Thursday. 

AT COMPLINE. 

Ant. Holy Mary. 
Psalm. O God, etc, (Ps. 69), — as it is in the 
Psalter. 

AT MATINS. 

Ant. Holy Mary. 
Psalm. Sing ye to the Lord, etc., — as above, p. 167. 

AT PRIME. 

Ant. Holy Mary. 
Psalm. Have mercy on me, etc., — as above, p. 1 59. 

AT TIERCE. 

Ant. Holy Mary. 
Psalm. 

Shout with joy to God, all the earth. 
Sing ye a Psalm to His name : 
give glory to His praise. 
Say unto God, How terrible are 
Thy works, O Lord : in the multi- 



Ps. 65: 1. 
Ps. 65: 2. 

Ps. 65: 3. 



I70 WRITINGS OF ST FRANCIS. 

tude of Thy strength Thy enemies 
shall lie to Thee. 

Ps. 65 : 4. Let all the earth adore Thee and 
sing to Thee : let it sing a psalm 
to Thy Name. 

Ps. 65 : 16. Come and hear, all ye that fear 
God, and I will tell you what great 
things He hath done for my soul. 

Ps. 65 : 17. I cried to Him with my mouth : 
and I extolled Him with my tongue. 

Ps. 17 : 7. And He heard my voice from His 
holy temple : and my cry came be- 
fore Him. 

Ps. 65 : 8. O bless our God, ye gentiles : and 
make the voice of His praise to be 
heard. 

Ps. 71 : 17. And in him shall all the tribes of 
the earth be blessed : all nations 
shall magnify Him. 

Ps. 71 : 18. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, 
who only doth wonderful things. 

Ps. 71 : 19. And blessed be the Name of His 
majesty forever: and the whole 
earth shall be filled with His 
majesty. Amen. Amen. 

AT SEXT. 

Ant Holy Mary. 

Psalm. 

Ps. 19 : 2. May the Lord hear thee in the day 
of tribulation : may the Name of the 
God of Jacob protect thee : may He 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 171 

Ps. 19 : 3. send thee help from the sanctuary 
and defend thee out of Sion : 

Ps. 19 : 4. be mindful of all thy sacrifices, and 
may thy whole burnt-offering be 
made fat ; 

Ps. 19: 5. Give thee according to thy own 
heart, and confirm all thy counsels. 

Ps. 19 : 6. We will rejoice in thy salvation ; 

and in the Name of our God we 
shall be exalted. 

Ps. 19 : 7. The Lord fulfil all thy petitions : 
now I know that the Lord hath 
sent Jesus Christ His Son, 

Ps. 9 : 9. and will judge the people with jus- 
tice. 

Ps. 9 : 10. And the Lord is become a refuge 

for the poor : a helper in due time 

of tribulation. 
Ps. 9: 11. And let them trust in Thee who 

know Thy Name. 
Ps. 143 : x. Blessed be the Lord my God : 
Ps. 58: 17. for Thou art become my support and 

refuge in the day of my trouble. 
Ps. 58 : 18. Unto Thee, O my helper, will I 

sing : for God is my defence, my 

God, my mercy. 

AT NONES. 

Ant. Holy Mary. 
Psalm. 

Ps. 70 : 1. In Thee, O Lord, have I hoped, let 
me never be put to confusion. 



172 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



Ps. 70 : 2. Deliver me in Thy justice and res- 
cue me : incline Thine ear unto 
and save me. 

Ps. 70 : 3. Be Thou unto me, O God, a pro- 
tector and a place of strength : that 
Thou mayest make me safe. 

Ps. 70 : 5. For Thou art my patience, O Lord ; 

my hope, O Lord, from my youth. 

Ps. 70 : 6. By Thee have I been confirmed 
from the womb, from my mother's 
womb Thou art my protector : of 
Thee I shall continually sing. 

Ps. 70 : 8. Let my mouth be filled with praise, 
that I may sing Thy glory; Thy 
greatness all the day long. 

Ps. 68: 17. Hear me, O Lord, for Thy mercy is 
kind ; look upon me according to the 
multitude of Thy tender mercies. 

Ps. 68 : 18. And turn not away Thy face from 
Thy servant ; for I am in trouble, 
hear me speedily. 

Ps. 143 : 1. Blessed be the Lord my God. 

Ps. 58 : 17. For Thou art become my support 
and refuge in the day of my trouble. 

Ps. 58 : 18. Unto Thee, O my helper, will I 
sing ; for God is my defence, my 
God, my mercy. 

AT VESPERS. 

Ant. Holy Mary. 

Psalm. O clap your hands. . . as above, p. 
164. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



173 



Here begin other Psalms which our most blessed Father 
Francis likewise arranged ; which are to be said in place 
of the foregoing Psalms of the Passion of the Lord from 
the Advent of the Lord until Christmas eve and not 
longer. 

AT COMPLINE. 

Ant. Holy Mary. 

Psalm. How long, O Lord (Ps. 12), as it is 
found in the Psalter. 

AT MATINS. 

Ant. Holy Mary. 
Psalm. 

Ps. 85 : 12. I will praise Thee, O Lord, most 
Holy Father, King of heaven and 
earth ; because 

Ps. 85 : 17. Thou hast comforted me. 

Ps. 24 : 5. Thou art God my Saviour. 

Ps. 1 1 : 6. I will deal confidently and will not 
fear. 

Ps. 117: 14. The Lord is my strength and my 
praise ; and is become my salvation. 

Exod. 15:6. Thy right hand, O Lord, is magni- 
fied in strength ; 

Thy right hand, O Lord, hath 
slain the enemy : 
Exod. 15:7. And in the multitude of Thy glory 
Thou hast put down Thy adver- 
saries. 

Ps. 68 : 33. Let the poor see and rejoice : seek 
ye God and your soul shall live. 



174 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



Ps. 68: 35. Let the heavens and the earth 
praise Him : the sea and everything 
that creepeth therein. 

Ps. 68 : 36. For God will save Sion and the 
cities of Juda shall be built up. 
And they shall dwell there : and 
acquire it by inheritance. 

Ps. 68 : 37. And the seed of His servants shall 
possess it : and they that love His 
Name shall dwell therein. 

AT PRIME. 

Ant. Holy Mary. 
Psalm. Have mercy on me, etc. — as above, p. 1 59. 

AT TIERCE. 

Ant. Holy Mary. 
Psalm. Shout with joy, etc. — as above, p. 169. 

AT SEXT. 

Ant. Holy Mary. 
Psalm. May the Lord hear thee in the day, etc. 
— as above] p. 170. 

AT NONES. 

A?it. Holy Mary. 
Psalm. In Thee, O Lord, have I hoped — as 
above, p. 171. 

AT VESPERS. 

Ant. Holy Mary. 
Psalm. O clap your hands, etc. — as above, p. 164. 

Also note that the whole Psalm is not said but up to 
the verse, " Let all the earth be moved " ; understand 



WRITINGS OF ST FRANCIS. 



175 



however that the whole verse " Bring your own bodies " 
must be said. At the end of this verse " Glory be to the 
Father " is said. And thus it is said daily at Vespers 
from Advent until Christmas eve. 

CHRISTMAS DAY AT VESPERS. 

Ant. Holy Mary. 
Psalm. 

Ps. 80 : 2. Rejoice to God our helper. 

Ps. 46 : 2. Shout unto God, living and true, 
with the voice of triumph. 

Ps. 46 : 3. For the Lord is high, terrible : 
a great king over all the earth. 
For the most holy Father of heaven, 
our king, before ages sent His Be- 
loved Son from on high and He 
was born of the Blessed Virgin, 
holy Mary. 

Ps. 88 : 27. He shall cry out to me : Thou art 
my Father ; 

Ps. 88 : 28. And I will make Him My First- 
born, high above the kings of the 
earth. 

Ps. 41 : 9. In the day time the Lord hath com- 
manded His mercy : and a canticle 
to Him in the night. 

Ps. 117:24. This is the day which the Lord- 
hath made : let us rejoice and be 
glad in it. 

For the beloved and most holy 
Child has been given to us and 
born for us by the wayside. 



I? 6 WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 

Luke 2 : 7. And laid in a manger because He 
had no room in the inn. 

Luke 2 : 14. Glory to God in the highest ; and 
on earth peace to men of good will. 

Ps. 95: 11. Let the heavens rejoice and the 
earth be glad, and let the sea be 
moved and the fulness thereof. 

Ps. 95 : 12. The fields shall rejoice and all that 
are in them. 

Ps. 95 : 1. Sing to Him a new canticle; sing 
to the Lord, all the earth. 

Ps. 95 : 4. For the Lord is great and exceed- 
ingly to be praised : He is to be 
feared above all gods. 

Ps. 95 : 7. Bring to the Lord, O ye kindreds 
of the gentiles, bring to the Lord 
glory and honor. 

Ps. 95 : 8. Bring to the Lord glory unto His 
Name. Bring your own bodies and 
bear His holy cross and follow His 
most holy precepts even unto the 
end. 



And note that this Psalm is said from Christmas until 
the octave of the Epiphany at all the Hours. 



APPENDIX 



APPENDIX. 



SOME LOST, DOUBTFUL, AND SPURIOUS WRITINGS. 

^^^P^|oubtless we should have expected 

VllffiM^ ever y f ra g ment of St. Francis' writ- 
ings to have been preserved with 
loving care throughout the ages. 
But when we consider the condi- 
tions under which some of them were composed 
and the vicissitudes they afterwards passed 
through, we need not be surprised if all of them 
have not come down to us. On the contrary. 
For if we may believe such writers as Uber- 
tino da Casale, serious attempts were made in 
certain quarters toward the close of the thir- 
teenth century to suppress altogether part of 
the Saint's writings. 1 Be this as it may, it is 
certain that several of these precious documents 
disappeared in the course of time. Among 
such lost treasures we must reckon the primi- 
tive Rule of the Friars in the form approved by 
Innocent III in 1209. 2 Again only two fragments 
seem to have survived of the " many writings'' 
which, as has been already mentioned, St. 
Francis addressed to the Poor Ladies at St. 

1 " Et toto conatu fuerunt solliciti annulare scripta beati 
patris nostri Francisci, in quibus sua intentio de observantia 
regulae declaratur."— See Archiv., Ill, pp. 168-169. 

2 See above, p. 26. 




I So WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



Damian's. 1 Whether or not either of these 
fragments is to be identified with a letter writ- 
ten by St. Francis to console the Clares, of 
which we read in the Speculum and the Con- 
formities, it is well nigh impossible to deter- 
mine. 2 Celano speaks 3 of a letter to St. Antony 
of Padua, different apparently from the one 
known to us, and of others to Cardinal Ugolino. 4 
So, too, Eccleston 5 tells of letters written to the 
brothers in France and at Bologna. 6 

As to the famous letter of St. Francis to St. 
Antony commissioning the latter to teach the- 
ology, there is no small diversity of opinion. It 
is given for the first time in the Liber Miraculo- 
rum? and also in the Chron. XXIV ' Generalium* 
M. Sabatier, who was, I believe, the first to call 
the authenticity of this letter into question, 9 

1 We need not despair of finding others ; the Clares' 
archives have mostly escaped spoliation. 

2 See Spec. Perf. (ed. Sabatier), c. 108, and ed. Lemmens, 
c. 18. See also the Conformities (I, fol. 185), and above, 
P- 75- 

3 See 2 Cel. 3, 99. 

4 See 1 Cel. 82. See also Leg III Soc, 67, where the 
Incipit of the letters is given. 

5 De Adventu Minorum in Angliam. See Mon. Genu. 
Hist., Script., t. XXVIII, p. 563, and Anal. Franc, 1. 1, p. 232, 
note 4. See also Fr. Cuthbert's translation of Eccleston, p. 
64. 

c Prof. Herkless in his. Francis and Dominic, p. 54, cites 
some passages from a letter which St. Francis " wrote to his 
friends at Bologna" in 1228. One searches in vain for any 
trace of such a letter among the early collections of St. 
Francis' writings. 

7 See ed. Acta S.S., no. 20. 

8 See Anai. Franc, t. Ill, p. 132. 

9 Vie de S. Francois, p. 322. 



APPENDIX. 



181 



now seems less inclined to reject it. 1 Professor 
Goetz 2 has decided for, and Professor Boehmer 3 
against it. The Ouaracchi editors, in excluding 
this letter from their edition of the Opuscula, by 
no means intended to deny that St. Francis 
wrote to fratri Antonio? but they were unable 
to determine which if any of the three different 
forms of this letter now in circulation might be 
the genuine one. Since the matter is sub judice* 
so to say, I think, with Mr. Carmichael, this let- 
ter might find a place among the " Doubtful 
Works " of St. Francis. 6 

Apropos of the Saint's doubtful works it seems 
proper to say a word as . to the Rule of the 
Brothers and Sisters of Penance. Although this 
Rule — like that of the Clares — is wanting in all 
the early MS. collections of St. Francis' writ- 
ings, we know from Bernard of Besse 7 that St. 

1 See Opuscules, fase, x, p. 128, note 1. 

2 Die Quellen, etc., p. 20. He places its composition be- 
tween 1222 and 1225. 

3 Analekten, p. vii. 

4 In the Liegnitz MS. and the Vatican Codex 4354 the pres- 
ent letter is addressed fratri Antotiio episcopo meo, which 
corresponds with the direction given by Celano (2 Cel. 3, 99). 

5 On this letter see also Papini {Storia, t. I, p. 118, n. 1), 
Mùller (Anfànge, p. 103), Lempp {Zeitschj'ift, t. XII, pp. 425, 
438), Lepitre (S, Anloine, p. 73), and de Kerval (S. Antonii, 
etc., p. 259, n. 1). 

6 Another less well known letter to St. Antony, giving him 
permission 14 to build a church near the city wall of Patti," is 
sometimes attributed to St. Francis. But the text is most 
improbable and gives rise to colossal historic difficulties. See 
Lepitre, S. Antoine, p. 120, note, and Fr. Edouard d Alen- 
con, Etudes Franc, t. XII, p. 361. 

7 Liber de Laudibus in Anal. Franc, t. Ill, p. 686. 



1 82 WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



Francis, with the cooperation of Cardinal Ugo- 
lino, wrote a Rule for these Tertiaries. What 
became of this document ? It is generally 
conceded that the Rule of this Third Order as 
it stands in the Bull Supra moniem of Nicholas 
IV in 1289 1 i s n °t the handiwork of St. Francis ; 
and for the rest the early history of the Third 
Order is uncertain, as all Franciscan students are 
aware. 2 But what are we to think of the much 
older text of this Rule published by M. Sabatier 
in 1901, after MS. XX of the convent at Capis- 
tran in the Abruzzi ? 3 Father Mandonnet, O.P., 
has tried to prove that the first twelve of the 
thirteen chapters comprising this document dis- 
covered by M. Sabatier, represent the Rule of 
1221 in its primitive state/ I would fain share 
the opinion of the learned Dominican on this 
head, but the objection raised against it by the 
Ouaracchi editors seems to me insuperable. It 
amounts to this : In Chapter VI, § 4, of this 
Regula Antiqua there is a clear allusion to a 

The text of this Rule (which was the one in force for Fran- 
ciscan Tertiaries until the promulgation of the Apostolic Con- 
stitution Misericors Dei Filius, by Leo XIII, May 30, 1883) 
may be found in Seraph. Ledisi., pp. 77-94. For the new Rule 
substituted by Leo XIII, see Acta ad Tertium Franciscalem 
Ordinem spectantia (Quaracchi, 1901), pp. 72-87. 

2 See Anal. Boll., t. xviii, p. 294. 

3 Regula Antiqua Fratrum et Sororum de Poenitentia. 
See Opuscules, t. I, p. 17. Boehmer also gives the text in his 
Anale k ten. 

4 " La règie donnée en 1221 . . . dans son état primitif." 
See his Les Règles et le gouvernement de Tordo de poenitentia 
au XlIIe Siècle iti Opuscules, t. I, p. 175. 



APPENDIX. 



l83 



Bull of March 30, 1228, 1 which it is difficult to 
regard as an interpolation. Moreover, as Fr. 
Ubald d' Alengon points out, 2 the mention of coin 
in circulation at Ravenna is also hard to explain 
in an Umbrian writer. Perhaps this document 
may prove to be St. Francis' Rule for Tertiaries 
put into legislative form, with the addition of a 
few minor regulations. Meanwhile, following 
the example of the Quaracchi editors, I have 
abstained from including it among the authentic 
writings of St. Francis. 3 

Coming next to St. Francis' poems, although 
he doubtless wrote some few canticles besides 
the Canticle of the Sun, the two others given by 
Wadding can hardly be accepted as his, at least 
in their present form. I refer to the Amor de 
caritade^ and In foco Vamor mi mise!" True, they 
are both attributed to St. Francis by St. Ber- 
nardine of Siena, 6 but they are also found among 
the works of Jacopone da Todi, 7 although Ozanam 
thinks that at most they were only retouched by 
the latter. 8 The tendency nowadays is to ascribe 

1 The Bull Detestando, humani generis of Gregory IX. 

2 Opuscules de S. Francois, p. 28. 

3 There is an English translation of it. See Third Orders, 
etc., by Adderley and Marson (Mowbray, 1902). 

4 Rosetti translated part of this poem in his Dante and his 
Circle, attributing it to St. Francis. 

5 See Misc. Franc, 1888, pp. 96 and 190, for two interesting 
texts of this poem. 

6 Opera omnia, t. IV, sermo 16 and 4 (see Acta S.S., t. II, 
Oct., p. 1003). 

7 Tacopone, lib. VI, chap. XVI, and lib. VII, chap. VI. 

8 Les Poètes Franciscains, p. 90. 



WRITINGS O* ST. FRANCIS. 



all the early Franciscan poetry to Jacopone. 
When the critical edition of this extraordinary 
man's works is published at Ouaracchi, some 
needed light will no doubt be thrown on this 
delicate question ; then too, perhaps, Pacifico, 
the " King of Verses," and " most courtly doctor 
of singers," may at length come into his own. 
Meanwhile a number of poems found in a fif- 
teenth century manuscript at the National Li- 
brary at Naples, once at the convent of Aquila 
in the Abruzzi, and lately ascribed to St. Francis, 
are clearly apocryphal, as Professor Ildebrando 
della Giovanna has sufficiently demonstrated. 

Wadding himself regarded the seven sermons 
of St. Francis he gives as of doubtful authen- 
ticity. And rightly, for they are from the work 
of Fr. Louis Pvebolledo, already mentioned. 1 
The twenty-eight Collationes are, pace Fr. Man- 
donnet, who regards them as genuine, 2 rightly 
rejected by Professor Goetz, who points out how 
Wadding compiled them from various sources. 3 
Many are translated from an Italian MS. at 
Fano in the Marches of which we know neither 
the age nor the parentage. 4 But they seem to 
be mere transcripts from the early legends. 
Thus Collatto I is an adaptation of Celano (i, 2) 

1 See Wadding. Opusc, p. 508 ff. 

2 See his Les Origines de V orcio de Poenitentia ; see also 
the Révue Thomiste, pp. 295-314. 

3 Quellen, etc., XXII, 362. But see above, p. 89, n. 1 also. 
4 "Codiculus quidam vestustus MS. Italico idiomati exara- 

tus mihi à Fano Piceni urbe, ad Metaurum amnem extructa, 
transmissus.' 1 See Wadding, Opusc, p. 285. 



APPENDIX. 



and Collatto XI Vis taken almost verbatim from 
St. Bonaventure, while Collatio V is an accom- 
modation of Celano and St. Bonaventure; XX VI 
and XXVIII are abridged from the Speculum ; 
XXIV is found in the Chron. XXIV Gen., and 
so on. It is therefore to the authors of these 
works and not to St. Francis that these confer- 
ences are to be ascribed. 

At the end of his edition of the Opuscula 
Wadding has collected several " Prayers of St. 
Francis " of which the text is more than doubt- 
ful. Let us see why. Take for example the 
prayers said to have been used by St. Francis 
"at the beginning of his conversion " or "in 
time of sickness " or "at the elevation." One 
searches in vain among the early MS. collections 
for any trace of these prayers, nor is mention 
of them to be found 1 elsewhere. As regards the 
prayer "to obtain Poverty/' it has long been 
known that it was not written by St. Francis 
himself. Wadding found it in the Arbor Vitae 
(1. v., cap, iii), but Ubertino da Casale is 
there quoting from the Sacrum Commercium B. 
Francisci cum Domina Paupertate? The lat- 
ter work is not an historical narrative, but an 
exquisite allegory in which St. Francis' own tale 
of his mystic espousals with the Lady Poverty 
is most poetically expanded by one of his follow- 

1 The text of the prayer " in time of sickness " is given, by 
Bonav. Leg. Maj., XIV, 2. 

2 Latin text published in 1900 by Fr. Ed. d'Alencon, and 
English translation by . Montgomery Carmichael ( The Lady 
Poverty} in 1901. 



1 86 WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



ers, 1 and consequently Ubertino did not pretend 
in citing such a work to give this prayer as the 
actual composition of Francis. 2 

In some MS. collections and library catalogues 
certain works may be found ascribed to St. 
Francis which are obviously spurious. For 
example, the Epistola B. Francisci ad Fr. Bernar- 
dina, found in at least two fifteenth century 
codices, 3 is nothing else but the letter of St. 
Bonaventure continens XXV memoralia? 

Sbaralea 5 mentions copies of a book of the 
Sayings 99 of St. Francis as existing at Assisi 
and Ferrara, 6 but a careful search has failed to 
reveal any trace of them. He also refers to a 
MS. (B. 31) in the Vallicellian Library at Rome 
in which " the sayings of St. Francis are found 
with the Rule," 7 but this codex is also missing. 
In this library, however, there is a codex (B. 82, 
fol. 141 r) which contains a " Sermon delivered 
by St. Francis at the end of his life." 8 The 

1 See Chron. XXIV Generalium in Anal. Franc. , t. Ill, 
p. 283. 

2 It is none the less a pearl of Franciscan literature. See 
the beautiful rendering of it which forms the appendix to 
Mr. Carmichael's translation of the Sacrum Commercila». 

3 At Vicenza (Bertol. lib. cod. G. I. 10. 24, fol. 89 r), also the 
Capistran MS. XXI, fol. 180 r. 

4 See Bonav. Opera omnia, t. VIII, p. 491. 
Supplementum, p. 244. 

6 Liber Dictorutti cujus initium Quid faciei homo et finis 
Oratio semper est praemitlenda. 

7 " Dicta S. Francisci, cum regula extant," he says. 

8 It is entitled : " Praedicatio quaedam quam fecit B. Fran- 
ciscus Fratribus suis circa finem mortis sui corporis." It 
abounds in quotations from SS. Basil, Chrysostom, Augustine, 
Isidore, Gregory, and Bernard. 



APPENDIX. 



187 



number of patristic citations this work contains 
is alone sufficient to demonstrate its spurious- 
ness. 

The Francisci Collationes cum fratribus, cata- 
logued among the Latin MSS. of the Royal Li- 
brary at Munich 1 as being contained in a fifteenth 
century MS. at that library (cod. 1 1354), are a 
selection from the Dicta of the Blessed Brother 
Giles, as is evident from the Incipit of the pro- 
logue and the text of the first collation. 2 Their 
attribution to St. Francis is therefore an error 
of the catalogue. The Verba S. Francisci de 
Paupertate, mentioned in the same catalogue as 
contained in Cod. 5998, fol. 189, are an excerpt 
from Chap. VI of the Second Rule of the Friars 
Minor. 3 

This attribution of writings to St. Francis 
which clearly do not belong to him is rarely 
intentional ; it is often the result of error. For 
the rest, it was easiest for compilers and libra- 
rians unacquainted with the authorship of cer- 
tain Franciscan works, and not eager to under- 
take deep researches as to their origin, to ascribe 
them to the common father of all Franciscan 
literature and the source of its inspiration. 

Since every new revelation of St. Francis must 
be a priceless gain, it is devoutly to be wished 
that the present energetic research work among 

1 See Calai, codicum latinorum, t. II, P. II, p, 17, n. 214. 

2 See Dicta B.JEgidii (Quaracchi, 1905), pp. 1-51. 

3 As to the " Perfectiones S. Francisci, quas dedit fratri 
Junipero,'' found at Paris (nat. lib., cod. 18327, fol. 158 r), 
see Monumenta, tr. II, fol. 281 r. 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



the sources of Franciscan history may happily 
bring to light some of St. Francis' writings not 
known to us save through the formal attesta- 
tion of the early legends and chronicles, or at 
least put us in possession of complete copies of 
such as have come down to us only in frag 
mentary form. 

Meanwhile I conclude this volume by wish- 
ing its readers their full share in the blessing 
which St. Francis himself has promised to those 
who receive his words kindly : Omnes Mi et Mae, 
qui ea benigne recipiejit, benedicat eis Pater et 
Films et Spiritus Sanctus. Amen. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



he following list of works is intentionally 



1 limited. Its aim is to give collectively and 
in alphabetical order a fuller reference to the 
principal and most accessible sources of infor- 
mation cited in the course of the present volume. 

Acta Sanctorum quotquot to to orbe coluntur, 
collegit Joannes Bollandus, etc. (ed. 3). 

Actus B. Francisci et Sociorum ejus. Ed. Sa- 
batier, Paris, 1902. 

Prof. Alessandri : Inventario dei Manoscritti 
della biblioteca del conv. di S. Francesco di Assisi. 
Forlì, 1894. 

Analecta Bollandiana} Brussels. 
Analecta Franciscana. Quaracchi. 
Matthew Arnold : Essays in Criticism. Mac- 
millan, 1875. 

Reginald Balfour : The Seraphic Keepsake. 
Burns & Oates, 1905. 

Fr. Francisci Bartholi, O.F.M. : Tractatus de 
Indulgentia S. Mariae de Portiuncula. Ed. Sa- 
batier, Paris, 1900. 

Fr. Bartholomaeus Pisanus, O.F.M. : De Con- 
formitate Vitae B. Francisci ad viiam D. N. Jesu 
Christi. Milan, 1510. 2 

1 The space devoted by Fr. Van Ortroy, S J., to Franciscan 
history in this periodical assumes larger proportions each 
year. 

2 A critical edition of this work will form Vol. IV of the 

Anal. Franc. 




WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



Fr. Bernardus de Bessa, O.F.M. : Liber de 
Laiidibus B. Francisci, In Anal. Franc. , t. III. 

Fr. Bernardo da Fivizzano, O.M.Cap.: Oposcoli 
di S. Francesco. Florence, 1880. 

Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina antiqnae et 
mediae aetatis. Ed. Socii Bollandiani. Brus- 
sels. 

Prof. H. Boehmer : Analekten znr Geschichte 
des Franciscus von Assisi. Tubingen and Leip- 
zig (Mohr), 1904. 

Ballettino Critico di Cose Francescane. Flor- 
ence. 

S. Bonaventura : Legendae duae de Vita S. 
Francisci. Quaracchi, 1898. (English transla- 
tion by Miss Lockhart. Washbourne, 1898.) 

Bullarium Franciscamim. Ed. F. F. Hyacinth 
Sbaralea and Conrad Eubel, O.M.Conv. 1759 
and 1898. 

Montgomery Carmichael : La Benedizione di 
San Francesco. Livorno, 1900. "The Origin of 
the Rule of St. Francis," in Dublin Review, Vol. 
CXXXIV, 1904, pp. 357-385. "The Writings 
of St. Francis," in the Month, January, 1904, t. 
CIII, pp. 156-164. See also under Sacrum Com- 
mercinm. 

Fr. Thomas de Celano, O.F.M. : Vita Prima 
S. Francisci. Ed. Suyskens, S.J., in Acta S.S., 
Oct., II. 

Vita Secunda S. Francisci. Ed. Amoni. Rome, 
1880. 

Tractatus de Miraculis. Ed. Van Ortroy, S.J., 
in Anal Boll., t. XVIII, 1899. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



igi 



Vita S. Clarae. Ed. Sedulius, O.F.M. Ant- 
werp, 1613. 

Fr. Leopold de Chérancé : 5. Francois d'Assise. 
Paris, 1892. (English translation by R. F. 
O'Connor: Burns & Oates, 1901.) 

Fr. Bernard Christen, O.M.Cap. : Leben des 
hi. Franciscus von Assisi. Innsbruck, 1899. 

Chronica XXIV Generalium in Anal. Francis. , 
t. III. 

Fr. Cuthbert, O. S.F.C. See under Eccleston. 

G. Cozza-Luzi : Chiara di Assisi ed Innocenzo 
IV. Rome, 1887. 

Lina Duff Gordon : The Story of Assisi. 
Dent, 1901. 

Fr. Thomas Eccleston, O.F.M. : De Adventu 
Fratrum Minorimi in Angliam in Anal. Franc, 
t. I ; see Monumenta Franc. Ed. Brewer. Rolls 
series. (English translation by Fr. Cuthbert, 
O. S.F.C. : The Friars and how they came to Eng- 
land. Sands, 1903.) 

Fr. Edouard d'Alengon, O.M.Cap. i 1 Epistola 
S. Francisci ad Ministrum Generalem in sua 
forma authentica. Rome, 1899. La Benediction 
de S. Francois. Paris, 1896. See also Sacrum 
Commercium. 

Fr. Ehrle, S J.: "Die Historischen Handschrif- 
ten von S. Francesco in Assisi " in the Archiv fiir 

1 When this volume is almost through the press, I learn of 
the publication of Fr. Edouard's long-promised edition of 
Celano' s works — S. Francisci Assisiensis vita et miracula 
additis opusculis liturgicis auctore Fr. Thoma de Celano. 
Hanc editionem novam ad fidem mss. recensuit P. Eduardus 
Alenconìensis, Rome. Desclée, 1905. 



192 



WRITINGS OF ST FRANCIS. 



Litteraturtmd Kirchengeschichte des Mittelalters, 
t. I, pp. 484 seq. " Controversen iiber die An- 
fànge des Minoritenordens " in Zeitschrift fur 
Katholische Theologie, t. XI, pp. 725 seq. 

Mgr. Faloci-Pulignani: "Tre Autografi di S. 
Francesco " in Misc. Francescana, t. VI, pp. 33 
seq., and " La Calligrafia di S. Francesco," /. c, 
t. VII, pp. 67 seq. 

Fiorettivi S. Francisci Assisiensis. Ed. Saba- 
tier. Paris, 1902. A satisfactory Italian ver- 
sion of the Fioretti is that of Barbere, Florence, 
1902. An excellent English translation, The 
Little Flowers of St. Francis, is published by 
Kegan Paul, 1905. 

Etudes Franciscaines. Namur. 

Joseph Gòrres: Der hi. Franciscus von Assisi, 
ein Troubadour, Ratisbon, 1879. 

Prof. Walter Goetz : Die Quellen zurGeschichte 
des hi. Franz von Assisi. Gotha, 1904. 

Prof. John Herkless : Francis and Dominic and 
tlie Mendicant Orders. Scribner, 1901. 

Fr. Jordani a Jano, O.F.M.: Chronica, in Anal. 
Franc, t. I. 

Leon de Kerval : Sancii Antonii de Padua 
Vitae duae. Paris, 1904. 

Fr. Leonard Lemmens, O.F.M.: "Die Anfànge 
des Clarissenordens " in Romische Quartalschrift, 
t. XVI, pp. 93 seq. Scripta Fratris Lconis, Qua- 
racchi, 1901. See also under Speculum Perfec- 
tiouis. 

Abbé Leon LeMonnier: Histoire de S. Fran- 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



193 



gozs d'Assise. (English translation by a Fran- 
ciscan Tertiary. Kegan Paul, 1894.) 

Prof. A. G. Little: Description de MS. Can. 
Misc. 525, de la Bibliothèque Bodleienne. Paris, 
1903. 

Canon Knox Little: St. Francis of Assisi: 
His Times, Life, and Work. Isbister, 1904. 

Anne Macdonnell : The Words of St. Francis. 
Dent, 1905. 

Fr. P. Mandonnet, O.P. : Les Origines de 
rOrdo de Poenitentia (Freiburg, 1898). Les 
Regies et le Gouvernement de VOrdo de Poeni- 
tentia au XI IF Siede (Paris, 1902). 

Miscellanea Francescana di Storia di Lettere, 
di Arti. Foligno. 

Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Berlin. 

Prof. Karl Miiller : Anfànge des Minoritenor- 
dens und der Bussbrudersckaften. Freiburg, 
1885. 

A. F. Ozanam : Les Poètes Franciscains en 
Italie au Treizième Siede. Paris, 1882, 6th ed. 

Opuscula S. P. Francisci Assisiensis. Edita 
a PP. Collegii S. Bonaventurae, Quaracchi, 1904. 

Fr. Panfilo da Magliano, O.F.M. : Storia Com- 
pendiosa di San Francesco. Rome, 1 874-1 876. 

Paul Sabatier : Vie de S. Francois d* Assise. 
Paris, 1894. (English translation by L. S. 
Houghton.) Regula antiqua Fratrum et Sororum 
de Poenitentia. Paris. (English translation in 
Adderley and Marsons' Third Orders. Mowbray, 
, 1902.) Description du MS. Franciscain de 
Liegnitz. Paris, 1901. Examen de quelques 



194 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



Travaux recents sur les Opuscules de Saint Fran- 
cois. Paris, 1904. See also under Actus, Bar- 
tholi, and Speculum. 

Fr. Hyacinth. Sbaralea, O.M.Conv.: Sup- 
plementum et Castigatio ad Scrip tores Trium 
Ordinum S. Francisci. Rome, 1806. 

Sacrum Commercium Beati Francisci cum 
Domina Paupertate. Ed. Fr. Ed. d'Alengon, 
O.M.Cap. Rome, 1900. (English translation 
by Montgomery Carmichael, The Lady Poverty ; 
Murray, 1901.) 

Emma Gurney Salter : Franciscan Legends in 
Italian Art. Dent, 1905. 

Seraphicae Legislationis Textus Originates. 
Quaracchi, 1897. 

Speculum Perfectioitis. Ed. Lemmens : Qua- 
racchi, 1 90 1. 

Speculum Perfectio7iis. Ed. Sabatier. Paris, 
1898. (English translation of the text only, by 
the Countess de la Warr : The Mirror of Perfec- 
tion. Burns & Oates, 1902.) 

Luigi Suttina : Appunti Bibliografici di Studi 
Francescani. Padua, 1904. 

H. Thode : Franz von Assisi und die Anfànge 
der Kunst der Renaissance in Italien. Berlin, 
1885 and 1904. 

Trium Sociorum f Legenda S. Francisci Assis. 
Ed. Faloci. Foligno, 1898. (English transla- 
tion by E. Gurney Salter : The Legend of the 
Three Companions. Dent, 1902.) 

Fr. Ubald d'Alen^on, O.M.Cap. : Les Opus- 
cules de S. Francois d'Assise. Paris, 1905. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



195 



Fr. Van Ortroy, SJ. For his article on the 
Opuscula of St. Francis, see Analecta Bollan- 
diana f t. xxiv, fase, iii (1905), p. 411 seq. 

Fr. Luke Wadding, O.F.M. : Annales Mino- 
rum. 1 B. P. Francisci Assisiatis Opuscula. Ant- 
werp, 1623. Scriptores Ordinis Minorum. Rome, 
1650. 

1 Wadding's Annales appeared at Lyons in 8 vols, in fol. 
1625-54. Fr. Jos. Man. Fonseca published a new edition and 
a continuation of the Annales in 19 vols, at Rome, 1731-45. 
The official Annalists of the Friars Minor have since added 
6 vols. (torn. 20-25), which were issued at Naples, Ancona, 
and Quaracchi. The last vol. (t. 25) edited by Fr. Eusebius 
Fernandzin (f 1899) extends to the year 1622. The Quarac- 
chi Friars are now engaged on the 26th volume. 




INDEX. 



A bruzzi 182, 184 

Acta Ordinis Minorimi 125 

Acta Sanctorum 26, 115, 154, 180 

Actus B. Francisci et Sociorum ejus 93 

Admonitions of the Friars 55 

Admonitions of St. Francis : 

codices containing them 3, 22 

their authenticity and number 3 

Aegidius. See Giles. 

Agnes of Bohemia. Blessed — 75 

Albert of Pisa, Minister General 111 

Alexander IV. Pope — 154 

Alms. On seeking — 42, 68 

Altar. St. Francis on Cleanliness of — 22 

Amor de Caritade, Poem 183 

Analekten. See Boehmer. 

Analecta Bollandiana 3, 27, 29, 78, 94, 182 

Anale eta Francis can a 25, 180 

Ange lis gaudium, Bull 75 

Angelo Clareno. See Clareno. 

Annates Minorum 25, 75, 76, 81, 96 

Anselm. St. — 40 

Antony. Letter of St. Francis to St. — . . 93, 180, 181 

Antony's MS. St.— 4, 22, 31, 81, no, 138 

Aquila 183 

Arbor Vitae 109, no, 145, 185 

Archiv fur Litteratur, etc 27, 179 

Arnold. Matthew — 150 

Assisi MS. 338 . . 3, 20, 22, 81, 89, 98, 109, 137, 138, 

143, 151, 154, 186 

Assisi MS. 344 148 

Augsburg Confession 115 

Autographs of St. Francis . 130, 146 

Aymon of Faversham, Minister General in 



198 WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



Oad example. St. Francis on — 13 

Balfour. Reginald — 147 

Bartholi, Tractatus 97, 12 1 

Bartholomew of Pisa 5, 20, 32, 89, 98, 109 

Benedict of Prato 80 

Berlin MS 3, 20, 81, 98, 154 

Bernardine of Siena. St. — 145, 183 

Bernardo da Fivizzano. Fr. — 131 

Bernard of Besse 181 

Blessed Virgin. Salutation of the — 143 

Blessing given by St. Francis to Brother Leo .... 149 
Blessing of St. Francis on those who receive his writ- 
ings kindly 188 

Boehmer. H. — . 26, 121, 137, 143, 144, 151, 155, 181, 182 

Bollandists 25, 115 

Bonaventure. St. — . 16, 19, 25, 26, 79, 81, 82, 83, 84, 

87, 146, 147, 185, 186 

" " See Leg. Major. 

Breviary. Seraphic — • * 25 

Brothers. Letter of St. Francis to all the — : 

its scope and date 109 

text of in 

Brothers Minor. See Friars. 

Brothers of Penance 25 

Bullarium Franciscanum 34, 75, 76, 79 

/^aesar of Spires 27, 28 

Canticle of the Sun 183 

authenticity 151 

its composition 150 

original Italian text of 151 

text of 152 

Capistran MS. XXII no, 182, 186 

Carceri. The — 88 

Carmichael. Montgomery — 87, 120, 131, 147, 181, 185, 186 

Catana. Peter of — ... 121 

Celano. Thomas de — quoted . . 20, 25, 28, 29, 45, 
78, 79, 81, 82, 83, 85, 88, 89, 93, 131, 146, 147, 

150, 154, 1S0, 184, 185 



INDEX. 



199 



Celle. The— 79, 88 

Chérancé. Leopold de — . 150 

Chiara. Monastery of Santa — 77 

Civiltà Cattolica .146 

Clare. Fragments, written by St. Francis, from the 

Rule of St.— 75, 94 

Canonization 154 

consulted by St. Francis 87 

her testimony as to the Office of the Passion 

composed by St. Francis 154 

Legend of — by Celano 154 

writes a new Rule 76 

Clareno. Angelo— 27, 29, 31, 32 

Cleanliness of the Altar. St. Francis on— 22 

Cleanness of Heart. St. Francis on — 15 

Clerics. St. Francis on honor due to — 18 

Codices containing Admonitions 3 

" Instruction on the Lord's Body . 22 
Letter to all the Faithful .... 98 

" " " " Friars 109 

" " " a Minister 120 

" Praises and Paraphrase of the 

Pater no s ter 137 

Regulation for Hermitages ... 89 
Salutation of the Virtues .... 20 
" " Blessed Virgin, 143 

" Testament 81 

Collationes attributed to St. Francis by Wadding . .184 

Commercium. The Sacrum — 87, 185, 186 

Companions. The Three — 79 

" Legend. See Leg. Ill So c. 

Compassion. St. Francis on — 15 

Confession of the Friars 53 

Conformitatum. Liber — . 5, 20, 32, 89, 98, 109, 120, 

122, 139, 143, 151, 152, 180 
Contemplative Life. St. Francis' predilection for 

the— 87 

Correction. St. Francis on True — 17 



200 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



Correction of the Friars. St. Francis on — ... 37 

Cortona . 79, 88 

Cozza-Luzi. G. — 77 

Creatures. Praises of — See Canticle. 

Cross of the Lord. St. Francis on — 10 

Cross. Office of the — See Office. 

Cum omnis vera, Bull . 75 

Cum secundum, Bull 34 

Custodes. Letter of St. Francis to — 95, 127 

Cuthbert, 0. S.F.C. Fr.— . , 132, 180 

pvamian's. St. — 75, 76, 150, 152, 180 

Dante 97, 150, 183 

Dead. St. Francis on Prayers for — 35 

De la Warr. Countess — 138 

Digne. Hugo de — See Hugo. 

Divine Love. St. Francis' prayer to obtain — . . . 145 
11 Office. St. Francis on — . - 35, 66, 81, 109 
See his letters passim. 
Documenta Antiqua Franciscana . . - 3, 13, 16, 80, 84 

Doubtful Writings of St. Francis 179 

Dusseldorf MS 20, 22, 98, 109 

Uccleston. Fr. Thomas — quoted 132, 180 

Edouard d'Alencon. Fr. — . . . 121, 147, 181, 185 

Ehrle, S.J. Fr. — 27, 31 

Elias. Fr. — : 

Blessing given to — . 85 

Letter to — .93, 116, 121 

writes letters to Friars near Valenciennes .... 30 

Envy. St. Francis on — 12 

\2ac sectmdum exemplar . . , 88, 137 

Faithful. St. Francis' Letter to — 94 

its authenticity, date of composition, and charac- 
teristics 96 

text of 98 



INDEX. 



20I 



Faloci. Mgr. — 5, 22, no, 130, 132, 14 

Fasting. St. Francis on — 35, 36, 66 

Fioretti. The — 87, 93 

Firmamenta Ordinis Minorum . . 4, 27, 32, 81, 82, 

83, 85, no, 138 

Floretum S. Francisci . . . - 87 

Floriano MS. St. — 4, 81, 98, no, 120 

Foligno MS 4, 20, 88, 98, no, 137 

Forma vivendi given by St. Francis to St. Clare . 77 

Francis. Sayings of St. — 16, 19 

composes Candele of the Sun 150 

composes Onice of the Passion 154 

dictates Testament 79 

gives a sheet with Blessing and Lauds to Brother 

Leo 146 

his paraphrase of the Pater noster 139 

his Salutation of the Blessed Virgin 143 

Letters of — See Letters. 

poems by — 183 

Praises composed by — ......... 137, 148 

Prayers of — 136, 180, 185 

Prayer to obtain Divine Love 145 

Rule of Third Order written by — 182 

sermons erroneously attributed to — 184 

writes First Rule for the Friars 25 

" second one 26 

" Formula Vitae for St. Clare 75 

" " last wish " for St. Clare 78, 94 

Freiburg MS no 

Friars. St. Francis' Letter to all — See Brothers. 

r^aspary 150 

General Chapter. St. Francis' Letter to — . 94, 109 

Giacoma di Settisoli 93 

Giano. Jordan of — See Jordan. 

Giles. Blessed — His Dicta 137, 187 

Goetz. Walter — quoted . 3, 79, 119, 125, 151, 181, 184 
Gonzaga, Minister General. Ven. Francis — .... 125 



202 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



Good, lest it be lost. St. Francis on hiding — ... 19 
Good Works. St. Francis on the need of — .... 11 

Greccio 88 

Gregory IX. (See also Ugolino.) 75, 79 

Gregory the Great. St. — 89 

Guarnacci. See Volterra. 

Uague MS 81 

n Herkless. Prof. John— 180 

Hermitages. Regulation for — See Regulation. 

Honorius III 26, 28, 30, 31, 34, 64, 75, 119 

Hugo de Digne 27, 29, 30, 32, 45 

Humility. St. Francis on True — 17 

Idleness. St. Francis on — 40 

Imitation of C/irist 16 

Imitation of the Lord. St. Francis on — 11 

Innocent III approves Rule viva voce . . 25, 26, 27, 

3o, 3i, 32, 179 

Innocent IV . . 75, 76 

Instruction on Reverence for the Lord's Body . 22, 94 

its authenticity . 22 

Isidore's MS. y 2 5. St. — . . . . 4, 88, 98, no, 120, 121 
" V73. " 4, 22, 98, no, 137 

" %2. " 27, 31 



acoba. See Giacoma. 



Jacopone da Todi 183 

Jacques de Vitry \ * 28 

Jerome. St. — 4° 

Jordan of Giano 27, 2S 

Julian of Spires 25 



I adies. Poor — 25 

Last wish written by St. Francis to St. Clare ... 78 
Laurentian MS 3» 4 



INDEX. 



203 



Legenda Major . 16, 19, 25, 26, 79, 81, 82, 84, 87, 146, 147, 185 
Legenda Trium So ciorum . . 27, 41, 79, 81, 83, 88, 180 



Legislation. The Seraphic — 25 

Liegnitz MS 4, 20, 22, 81, 98, no, 137, 154, 181 

Lemberg MS 4, 98, 137 

Lemmens 4, 76, 80 

See also Spec. Per/, ed. Lemm. and Doc. Ant. 
Franc. 

Le Monnier. Leon — 30, 96, 97 

Lempp. Dr. E. — 76, 120, 121, 181 

Leo. Brother — 80, 94, 95, 118 

Blessing given by St. Francis to — . . « 146, 149 

difficulties of construction in 130 

history of the autograph 130 

Letter of St. Francis to — 130 

text of 132 

Lepers. St. Francis' mercy toward — 81 

Letters of St. Francis : 

their number and classification . > . . 93, 94, 180 

to all the Faithful 96 

to all the Friars 109 

to a Minister 119 

to the Rulers 125 

to the Custodes 127 

to Brother Leo 130 

Little. A. G.— 4, 155 

Little. W. J. Knox— 28, 96, 151 

Lord's Body. St. Francis on reverence for — . 5, 23, 109 
Lord's Prayer. St. Francis' Paraphrase of the — . . 137 
Lord's Body. St. Francis' Instruction on reception 

of the — 20, 94 

reverence for — 22 

Lo Speco 88 

Lost Writings of St. Francis 179 

Love. Prayer of St. Francis to obtain Divine — . . 145 

St. Francis on — n 

St. Francis on True — 18 

Luttich MS 4, 98 



204 WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



JWlandonnet, O. P 182, 184 

Marianus of Florence 22 

Mary Magdalene. St.— 82 

Mary. The Blessed Virgin — See Blessed Virgin. 

Martha. St.— 89 

Mazarin MS. 989 4, 20, 22, 81, 98, no 

" 1743 4, 20, 22, 98, no 

Melanchthon. Philip — 115 

Minister General. Election of — 70 

Minister. Letter of St. Francis to a — ... 94, 95, 118 

its scope 119 

uncertainty as to whom it was addressed . . . .119 
Minorimi Annales. See Annates. 

Miscellanea Francescana . . . . 5, 22, 81, no, 130, 183 

Money prohibited to the Friars 41, 68 

Monumenta Germaniae Historic a 30, 132 

Mc7iutnenta Ordinis Minorum . . 5, 27, 32, 81, 85, 98, 

no, 138, 187 

Mortification. St. Francis on — 13 

Munich MS. 11354 4, 98, no, 187 

" 23648 27 

Mùller. Karl— 26 



Mames. St. Francis on the holy — 22, 82 

See also his Letters passim. 

Naples MS. XII F 4, 20, 120, 121, 184 

" " F32 98 



f^\bedience. St. Francis on Perfect and Imperfect — 8 
Office of the Passion composed by St. Francis . 154 

its division • 155 

St. Clare refers to it 154 

Ognissanti MS. . . 4, 20, 32, 81, 88, 89, 98, no, 120, 

121, 122, I37, 143 

Opuscula. Wadding's edition of the — . 20, 22, 66, 

77, 87, 89, 93, 125, 184, 185 
Opuscules de Critique Historiquc . 4, 138, 143, 144, 155 



INDEX. 205 

Opuscules de S. Franqois . . . 22,98, 118, 181, 182, 183 

Oriente Serafico 25 

Ostia. Lord of — 85 

Oxford MS 4, 98, no, 154 

Ozanam. A. F. — quoted 150, 183 

pacifico. Fra — 150, 183 

Palaeographers' testimony on autograph of St. 

Francis 147 

Panfilo da Magliano. Fr. — 151 

Papini 146, 183 

Paraphrase of Lord's Prayer by St. Francis . . 137, 139 

Parenti. John — 125 

Paris Nat. Lib. MS. 18327 81, no 

Paris MS. Prot. Theol. Fac 4, 20, 22, 98, no 

" " See also Mazarin. 
Passion. Office of the — See Office. 

St. Francis' devotion to — 154 

Patience. St. Francis on — 14 

Patrem. Leo— 25 

Peacemakers. St. Francis on — 14 

Pecorella. See Leo. 

Penance to be imposed on Friars. The— ... 69, 120 

Penance. Brothers and Sisters of — 25, 181 

Pentecost Chapter. See Whitsun. 

Poems of St. Francis 183 

Poor Ladies 25, 75, 179 

Portiuncula 29, 52, 79, 80, 119, 138, 152 

Indulgence of — 146 

Poverello. See Francis. 

Poverty, The Lady— 87, 185 

Poverty of Spirit. St. Francis on — 14, 185 

Praises composed by St. Francis 137, 139, 148 

Prague MS 4, 81 

Prayers of St. Francis 136, 142, 145, 154, 185 

Preaching. St. Francis on — 50, 71 

Priests. St. Francis' Reverence for — 82 

Psalms arranged by St. Francis 155 



WRITINGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



Quaracchi edition of Opuscida . 4, 20, 31, 93, 95, 96, 
98, no, 119, 121, 122, 125, 127, 131, 137, 143, 145, 

148, 151 181, 182, 184, 186 

Quellen, etc. See Goetz. 

Quo elong ali, Bull 79 

Daphael. St. — 61 

^ Rebolledo 93, 184 

Reception of the Lord's Body 53 

Regulation for Hermitages 87 

date and authenticity 88 

its origin and scope 87 

Religious. St. Francis on the good and the humble, 
the happy and the vain, frivolous and talkative — . 16 

Renan. Ernest — 79, 151 

Reverence for the Lord's Body. Instruction on — . 22 

Richer. Brother — 133 

Rodolfo di Tossignano. Fr. — 97 

Rosetti. D. G.— 183 

Rulers. Letter of St. Francis to all the — . 94, 95, 109, 

no, 120 

Rules of the Friars Minor .... 25, 179, 181, 182, 186 

approved by Innocent III 25 

no third redaction of it 27 

St. Francis wrote it twice 25 

text of First 31 

text of Second 64 

Rule. St. Francis on observance of — 109 

Rule of St. Clare written by Gregory IX 75 

Cabatier. Paul— . 4, 16, 22, 25, 26, 28, 29, 79, 80, 81, 
87, 93, 94, 97, 98, 120, i2i, 127, 131, 137, 138, 143, 

151, 180, 182 

See also Spec. Per/., ed. Sab. 

Sacro Convento at Assisi 64, 146, 148 

Sacrum Commercium 87, 185, 186 

Salutation of the Blessed Virgin by St. Francis ... 143 
Salutation of the Virtues: its authenticity, etc. , . . 20 
Saracens 48, 73 



INDEX. 207 

Saturnino da Caprese. Fr. — 147 

Sbaralea. Hyacinth — 27, 186 

Self-will. St. Francis on the evil of — 8 

Seraph. Brother Leo's reference to the — 148 

Seraphic Breviary. The — 25 

Seraphic Legislation: its intricacy 25 

Seraphicae Legislationis textus originales . 30, 75, 76, 

77, 182 

Servant. St. Francis on the humble, the happy, and 

the unhappy — 15 

Servants of God should honor Clerics 18 

Sick Friars. St. Francis on the care of— .... 44, 68 

Siena. St. Bernardine of — 145 

Signature of St. Francis . 147 

Sisters of Penance 25 

Sociorum. See Leg, Ill Soc. 

Solet annuere, Bull 76 

Spanish text' of St. Francis' Letters 93 

Speculum Minorum 32, 60, 81, 121, 137, 144 

Speculum Perfectionis, ed. Sabatier . 16, 22, 26, 28, 31, 

45, 80, 81, 87, 94, 138, 151, 155, 180 
" ed. Lemmens . . . . 3, 13, 16, 80 

Speculum Vitae 20, 29, 143 

Spires. Caesar of — See Caesar. 
Spires. Julian of— See Julian. 

Spirit of God. St. Francis on — 13 

Spiritual Friars. The — 31 

Spoelberch. See Speculum Vitae. 

Spoleto. Autograph of St. Francis at — 130 

Stigmata of St. Francis 148 

Subiaco MS no 

Superiorship. St. Francis on seeking — 9 

Suttina. Luigi — . . , 150 

Suyskens, SJ. Fr. — 26 

Sylvester. Brother — , 87 

Tancredi. Angelo — 79 

Testament of St. Francis 79 



208 



IVRITÌNGS OF ST. FRANCIS. 



Testament of St. Francis.- Codices containing — . . 81 

its authenticity 79 

place of composition 79 

text of 81 

Than. St. Francis' use of the letter — . , 147 

Thomas of Celano. See Celano. 

" " Farignano, Minister General in 

Three Companions. Legend of — See Leg. Ill So c. 

Toledo MS 4 

Trinm Sociorum. See Leg. Ill So c. 

T Ibald d'Alencon. Fr. — 22, 132, 183 

Ubertino da Casale. Fr. — . . 109, 145, 179, 185, 186 
Ugolino. Card. — (See also Gregory IX) . . 76, 84 

180, 182 

Ugolino di Monte Giorgio 93 

yan Ortroy, S.J. Fr.— 3, 27, 29, 78 

Vatican Library 64 

Vatican MS. 7650 4, 20, 81, 88, 98, 120, 121 

" B 82 no 

" 4354 . . 4, 20, 80, 81, 98, no, 137, 143, 181 

" " Ottob. 522 and 666 27 

Verna. La — 109, 145, 146, 152 

Virgin. The Blessed — 61 

" See Salutation. 
Virtues putting Vices to flight. St. Francis on — . . 19 
Virtues. Salutation of — See Salutation. 
Vita S. Clarae, by Thomas de Celano. See Celano. 

Vita S. Francisci ì by Julian of Spires 25 

11 " " 14 St. Bonaventure. See Leg. Maj. 
14 44 44 " Thomas de Celano. See Celano. 
Volterra MS. 4, 98, no, 127 

^7 adding . . 5, 20, 22, 25, 32, 66, 76, 77, 78, 82, 83, 
85, 87, 89, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 109, no, 118, 120, 
121, 122, 125, 127, 130, 131, 132, 143, 144, 145, 

154, 155, 183, 184, 185 

Whitsun Chapter 37, 70 



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